Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Maple Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Boil maple sugar and water until it gels.
Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg white until smooth.
Finish
Spread the icing while warm.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Maple sugar
- Provides the sweetness and flavor, and forms the thick body of the icing as it cooks.
- Egg white
- Adds structure and lightness, helping the icing turn smooth and stay airy as it cools.
The step that matters
Boil until it gels. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set into an icing. Undercooked syrup stays runny, while overcooked syrup turns stiff and grainy as it cools.
“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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