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 Food
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Make the batter
Beat the egg whites with salt until dry and stiff, adding the cream of tartar when half beaten.
Sift the flour five times and fold it into the egg whites.
Sift the powdered sugar five times and fold it into the mixture.
Add the flavoring while beating the mixture gently.
Pour the batter into an ungreased cake pan.
Bake and serve
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Once done, loosen the cake from the pan immediately and turn it out.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 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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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg 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 provides the cake's entire airy structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilizes the whipped egg whites, helping them hold their volume.
- Pastry flour
- Low-protein flour that gives a tender crumb with little toughness.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cake and dissolves into the foam, adding fine texture.
The step that matters
Folding the flour and sugar into the egg whites. Egg white foam traps air that gives the cake its rise. Folding gently, rather than stirring, keeps that air in the batter; overmixing deflates it and makes a dense cake.
“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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