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Dessert

Dixie Chocolate Icing

A chocolate icing made with grated chocolate, butter, evaporated milk, sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Evaporated milk and syrup share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 59 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Dixie Chocolate Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the icing

  1. Combine grated chocolate and evaporated milk in a saucepan; cook until melted and smooth, stirring frequently.

  2. Add sugar, corn syrup, and butter; cook until the mixture forms a soft ball when dropped in cold water.

  3. Remove from heat, add salt and vanilla, and let it cool in cold water until lukewarm.

Finish and spread

  1. Beat the mixture until it begins to set, then spread it on the cake.

  2. If the mixture sets too quickly, add a little cream or gently reheat it on the stove.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Evaporated milk + syruptop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Vanilla + corntop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bitter chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavour and the body of the icing.
Evaporated milk
Melts with the chocolate to make a smooth, creamy base.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the icing and helps it set firm as it cools.
Corn syrup
Keeps sugar crystals small, giving a smoother, less grainy icing.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer, softer texture and smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Beating until it begins to set. Sugar syrup crystallises as it cools and is beaten. Beating at the right moment makes the icing creamy and spreadable; beaten too late it turns hard and grainy, and too early it stays runny.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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