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Dessert

White Mountain Cream

A light, spreadable frosting made from sugar syrup and beaten egg whites, flavored with vanilla or lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

White Mountain Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and boiling water, stirring to prevent sticking.

  2. Heat gradually to boiling point and boil without stirring until syrup threads from a spoon.

Make the cream

  1. Pour syrup gradually over beaten egg whites while constantly beating the mixture.

  2. Continue beating until the mixture reaches a spreadable consistency.

  3. Add vanilla or lemon juice and mix well.

Finish the cake

  1. Spread evenly over the cake with the back of a spoon.

  2. If desired, place nuts or candied cherries on the frosting immediately after spreading.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 a foam that gives the cream its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Boiled into a syrup that sweetens the cream and helps it hold its shape.
Vanilla or lemon juice
Adds flavor; lemon juice also adds a touch of acidity that helps stabilize the foam.

The step that matters

Pouring the syrup over the egg whites. The syrup must be hot and poured in a slow, steady stream while beating constantly, so it cooks the egg white foam and sets it smooth rather than leaving lumps or a deflated mixture.

“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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