Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓
Royal Icing for Ornamentation
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Place 1 or 2 egg whites in a round-bottomed basin.
Gradually add powdered sugar until the mixture is light and elastic.
Pipe and decorate
Use small funnel-like tubes to pipe the icing into flower shapes.
Imitate flowers such as roses, pansies, and daisies for decoration.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg whites
- Provide the protein structure that traps air and gives the icing its light, elastic body.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the icing and thickens it as it is added, setting its final consistency.
The step that matters
Gradually add powdered sugar. Adding sugar slowly lets the egg white proteins hold air and stiffen evenly. Adding it all at once can leave lumps or an icing that is too stiff or too runny to pipe.
“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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