Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Oriental Icing
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 236°F (113°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the syrup
Cook the sugar with just enough water to dissolve it to 236°F (113°C), wiping down the sides of the kettle.
Add the glycerine when the sugar is dissolved and the acetic acid when it begins to boil.
Pour the cooked sugar onto a damp slab or platter and let it cool.
Finish and ice
Beat the egg white and mix it into the cooled syrup, adding the vanilla.
When the mixture starts to thicken, quickly spread it on the cake.
If it runs off, cream it a little more before adding more icing.
If it gets too stiff, it will make the cake look rough.
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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together27,347 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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
- Sugar
- Forms the syrup base that sets into the icing's sweet, smooth body.
- Egg white
- Beaten into the syrup to lighten the texture and help the icing become creamy.
- Glycerine
- Helps keep the icing soft and prevents it from drying out too quickly.
- Acetic acid
- Acidity that helps keep the cooked sugar from crystallizing into grainy texture.
The step that matters
Stopping the thickening at the right moment. Once the icing starts to thicken, it sets quickly. Spreading it promptly keeps it smooth, while letting it stiffen makes it hard to spread and leaves a rough surface on the cake.
“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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