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 ↓
Prauline Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine 2 cups of sugar and ½ cup of water in a saucepan and cook until the mixture drops from the spoon.
Melt the remaining ½ cup of sugar and pour it into the syrup.
Continue cooking until the mixture forms threads (hairs).
Finish the icing
Slowly pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites while mixing.
Spread the icing between layers and over the top of the 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
- Dissolves and cooks into a syrup that sweetens and sets into a firm, glossy icing.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that traps air, giving the icing a light, stable structure.
The step that matters
Pouring the syrup into the beaten whites. The syrup must be poured slowly in a thin stream while the whites are beaten. Hot syrup gently cooks the egg proteins and a steady stream blends it in evenly, so the foam stays smooth and stable instead of collapsing or turning lumpy.
“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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