Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Angel Food
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 200°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Sift the flour once, then measure and sift it three times.
Add salt to the egg whites and beat until foamy.
Add cream of tartar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat.
Make the batter
Gently fold in the flour until fully combined.
Add vanilla or almond extract for flavor.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into an ungreased tube pan.
Place the pan in a warm oven (about 200°F or 93°C) until the batter rises to the top of the pan.
Gradually increase the oven temperature to 400°F (200°C) and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
Check if the cake is done by pressing the top; it should spring back.
Invert the pan to cool, then remove the 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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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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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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 whites
- Whipped into foam that gives the cake its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and stabilizes the whipped egg white foam.
- Pastry flour
- Provides a light, tender crumb structure that holds the cake's rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the egg white foam so it holds stiff peaks longer.
The step that matters
Folding in the flour. Overmixing or deflating the whipped egg whites loses the air that makes the cake rise, so the flour should be folded in gently until just combined.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, flour, cream):
- Raisinfits about as well
- Vanillathe original
- Figfits less well
- Strawberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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