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 Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Boil sugar and water together until it becomes brittle when dropped into cold water.
Remove from heat and quickly stir in the well-beaten egg white.
Finish the cake
Use the icing between layers or on top of a 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
- Boiled to a syrup that sets into a glossy, firm coating as it cools.
- Egg white
- Beaten into the hot syrup to add foam and a light, airy texture to the icing.
The step that matters
Stirring in the egg white off the heat. Stir in the beaten egg white quickly once the syrup is removed from heat. Adding it while the syrup is still boiling can scramble the egg white and make the icing grainy rather than smooth.
“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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