Why it works: Flour and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Confectionery Paste in Colours
Ingredients
Directions
Make the paste
Combine flour, egg whites, and dissolved gum dragon to form a smooth paste.
Roll the paste out to ⅛ inch thickness.
Cut your desired design from the paste using a knife.
Dry and assemble
Dry the pieces in the stove.
Join the pieces together with some of the same paste mixed with gum water as cement.
Color some of the paste as desired for molding.
Use wooden molds to shape the colored paste and join pieces with the cement paste.
Finish
Dust the groundwork with powdered sugar and decorate with spun sugar as desired.
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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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Flour
- Forms the bulk of the paste and gives it body so it can be rolled and cut.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and binding so the paste holds its shape when dried.
- Gum dragon
- Acts as a binder that helps the paste hold together and stiffen as it dries.
The step that matters
Dry the pieces in the stove. Drying removes moisture so the cut pieces harden and hold their shape; if they are not fully dry, they can warp or soften when joined and decorated.
“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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