Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 ↓
Boiled Frosting for Cakes
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup and whip the egg white
Boil the sugar in water until it reaches the medium ball stage.
While the sugar is boiling, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form.
Combine and finish
Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg white in a thin stream, stirring constantly.
Continue to beat the mixture until it cools down.
The frosting is now ready to use on your 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 + eggtop 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, boiled into a syrup, sets into a firm, glossy frosting as it cools.
- Egg white
- Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot syrup in a thin stream while beating. The hot syrup gradually cooks and stabilises the whipped egg white foam. A fast pour or a pause in beating can scramble the egg white or deflate the foam, so the stream should be slow and the beating constant.
“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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