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
Boil the castor sugar in boiling water until it threads strongly.
Beat the egg white to a stiff froth and add the cream of tartar.
Gradually mix in the sugar syrup.
Beat until cold and thick, then flavor to taste.
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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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Egg and cream 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
- Castor sugar
- Dissolves into the boiling water to form a syrup that sets the icing's sweetness and body.
- Egg white
- Whipped into a foam that traps air, giving the icing its light, fluffy structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg white so its foam holds together while the syrup is added.
The step that matters
Gradually mix in the sugar syrup. Pouring the hot syrup in slowly while beating lets it cook the egg white evenly and keeps the foam from collapsing. Adding it all at once can deflate the foam and leave lumps.
“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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