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 ↓
50 Boiled Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and enough water to dissolve it in a saucepan.
Boil the mixture until it threads from the spoon.
Combine and beat
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Pour the boiling sugar into the egg whites while beating continuously.
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
- Sugar
- Dissolves into a syrup that sets into a sweet, glossy frosting as it cools.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling sugar into the egg whites while beating continuously. Hot syrup poured in while beating cooks the egg whites gently and keeps them from clumping or deflating. Pouring in a thin stream while beating is what makes the frosting smooth and stable.
“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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