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 ↓
Boiled Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the powdered sugar and water in a saucepan and boil without stirring until a few drops harden in cold water.
Remove from heat and pour the mixture over the beaten egg white.
Beat until the icing is cool enough to spread on cakes.
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
- Powdered sugar
- Provides the sweetness and bulk that form the icing body once cooked and beaten.
- Egg white
- Whipped with the hot syrup to add airy structure and a light, fluffy texture.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar syrup without stirring. Stirring can encourage sugar crystals to form, making the icing grainy. The syrup must reach the stage where a few drops harden in cold water, since its concentration sets the final firmness of the 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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