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 ↓
Boiled Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar and water without stirring until the syrup threads.
Whip and finish
Beat the egg white until stiff, then add the cream of tartar.
Pour the boiling syrup over the egg white in a fine stream while beating continuously.
Continue beating until the icing is thick enough to spread on the cake.
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
- Granulated sugar
- Dissolves into the syrup that becomes the sweet, thick body of the icing.
- Egg white
- Whipped into a foam that gives the icing its light, airy structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the egg white, helping its foam stay stable and resist collapsing.
The step that matters
Pouring the boiling syrup in a fine stream while beating. The hot syrup partly cooks the egg white proteins, setting the foam. Pouring too fast or stopping to beat can clump the syrup or deflate the foam, so a thin stream with constant beating gives a smooth, stable icing.
“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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