Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Boiled Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Boil the sugar with water until it reaches the soft ball stage.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form.
Add the cream of tartar and corn starch to the egg white.
Make the frosting
Slowly pour the hot sugar syrup into the egg white while beating continuously until light and fluffy.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Cream + corntop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Egg white
- Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Cooked into a syrup that sweetens the frosting and sets into a glossy coating.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the egg white, helping its foam stay stable and resist collapsing.
- Corn starch
- Helps stabilize the foam and keeps the frosting from weeping or deflating.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot syrup into the egg white. The syrup must be pouring in slowly while beating continuously. Pouring too fast can deflate the foam, and the hot syrup partly cooks the egg white proteins, which sets a stable, fluffy structure.
“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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