Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
White Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a saucepan.
Boil without stirring until the mixture ropes.
Whip the frosting
Pour the hot syrup onto the egg white while beating continuously.
Continue beating until the frosting thickens.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, dissolved into syrup, forms the body of the frosting.
- Egg white
- Whipped with the hot syrup to form a light, stable foam that gives the frosting its structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent crystallization and stabilizing the egg white foam.
The step that matters
Boil without stirring until the mixture ropes. Stirring can trigger sugar crystals to form, leaving a grainy frosting. Boiling the syrup to the right concentration sets how firm and glossy the finished frosting will be.
“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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