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 ↓
Marshmallow Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Boil sugar and water until it threads.
Pour the syrup into the beaten egg white.
Add the marshmallows cut into fine pieces.
Beat until melted and the frosting is thick enough to spread.
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 into the water to form a syrup that sweetens and sets the frosting.
- Egg white
- Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
- Marshmallows
- Melt into the hot syrup and egg white, adding sweetness and body to the frosting.
The step that matters
Pour the syrup into the beaten egg white. The syrup must be hot and boiled to the threading stage so it cooks the egg white and sets the foam. Pouring it in slowly while beating keeps the egg white from scrambling and keeps the foam stable.
“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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