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 ↓
Maple Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Break the maple sugar into pieces and melt it.
Add water and boil until it threads.
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Pour the boiling sugar over the egg whites.
Beat until it stiffens.
Spread quickly.
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
- Maple sugar
- Provides the sweetness and maple flavor, and its boiled syrup sets into the icing.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the icing its light, airy structure.
The step that matters
Pour the boiling sugar over the egg whites. The syrup must be at a hard boil so it is hot enough to cook the whipped whites slightly and firm the foam. Pouring it in a thin, steady stream while beating keeps the foam from collapsing.
“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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