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 ↓
Reliable or Seven Minute Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
In a double boiler, combine sugar, egg white, and cold water.
Ensure the water in the lower boiler is boiling briskly.
Beat the mixture constantly with a hand mixer for seven minutes.
Remove from heat, add marshmallows, and mix until combined.
Finish and use
Use to flavor and ice your 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
- Sweetens the icing and, with the egg white and water, helps form a stable structure as it cooks.
- Egg white
- Whipped with heat, its proteins set into a light, airy foam that gives the icing its body.
- Marshmallows
- Melt into the hot icing, adding sweetness, softness and a smooth, glossy texture.
The step that matters
Beating over boiling water for seven minutes. Egg white proteins need steady heat and constant beating to cook and foam into a stable structure. If the water is not boiling briskly, the mixture stays runny and may not thicken into icing.
“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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