Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Angel Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Sift the flour four or five times, then measure and set aside 1 cup.
Sift and measure 1 ¼ cups of granulated sugar.
Make the batter
Beat the egg whites until frothy, add cream of tartar, and beat until very stiff.
Gently stir in the sugar, then fold in the flour lightly.
Add flavoring to taste.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for 35 to 50 minutes.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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 a foam that gives the cake its light, airy structure.
- Granulated sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the cake once the foam is baked.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the egg whites, helping them whip to a stable, stiff foam.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until very stiff. Under-beaten whites will not hold enough air, so the cake rises poorly; over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and collapse. The foam must be stiff but still smooth so the batter keeps its volume.
“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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