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Cheap Ornamental Icing

A sweet icing made from sugar, water, egg whites, potato starch, gelatin, and acetic acid.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cheap Ornamental Icing

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the sugar and water in a pot until it reaches 240°F (115°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they form stiff peaks.

  3. Pour the hot sugar mixture into the egg whites while continuing to beat for 3 minutes.

  4. Gradually add the potato starch, beating until the mixture is cold.

  5. Dissolve the gelatin in ½ cup of water and mix it into the icing.

  6. Add acetic acid to taste; if the icing is too stiff, add more water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + gelatintop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Egg + potatotop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Potato + gelatintop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Forms the syrup that sets into a glossy, sweet structure as the icing cools.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the icing its light, airy body.
Potato starch
Thickens the icing and helps it hold its shape as it cools.
Gelatin
Adds elasticity so the set icing holds its shape without becoming brittle.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot sugar syrup into the egg whites. Pour the syrup in a slow, steady stream while beating. The hot syrup cooks the egg white proteins and stabilises the foam; pouring too fast or letting the foam deflate can collapse the icing.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, gelatin):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, gelatin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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