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Dessert

Fool-proof Frosting

A frosting made by boiling sugar, water, and syrup, then adding to beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fool-proof Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar, water, karo syrup, and salt together until it spins a thread.

Combine and beat

  1. Slowly pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites while constantly beating.

  2. Continue beating until the frosting thickens.

  3. Beat in the powdered sugar.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 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. Syrup + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,995 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

White sugar
Provides sweetness and, when boiled, the syrup that sets the frosting's structure.
Egg whites
Whipped to form a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
Karo syrup
Interferes with sugar crystallization, keeping the frosting smooth and glossy.
Powdered sugar
Stiffens the frosting and adds sweetness once the syrup is beaten in.

The step that matters

Slowly pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites. Pouring hot syrup too fast or without constant beating can cook the egg whites unevenly or collapse the foam, so the frosting loses its airy texture. Steady, continuous beating lets the heat spread gently and the foam stay 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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