Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓
Cherries, Frosted
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Wipe the cherries with a dry, soft cloth.
Coat the cherries
Whisk the egg whites to a firm froth and mix with the spring water.
Dip each cherry in the egg mixture, then drain.
Roll each cherry in finely sifted sugar.
Dry
Place the cherries on clean writing paper on an inverted sieve, ensuring they do not touch.
Let them dry for six to eight hours.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg whites
- Form a thin, glossy coating that dries into a crisp, frosted shell around each cherry.
- Finely sifted sugar
- Adds sweetness and a dry, sparkling crust that sticks to the egg coating.
The step that matters
Drying the coated cherries. The cherries must not touch while drying, or the wet coating will fuse them together and leave flat, uneven spots. Slow drying in air lets the egg white set into a firm, even crust.
“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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