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 ↓
Plain White Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the egg white with the powdered sugar until thick.
Place the icing in a very warm area to dry.
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 white
- Provides the structure that whips the icing thick and holds its shape.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves into the foam to give the icing body and a smooth texture.
The step that matters
Beating the egg white with the powdered sugar until thick. Under-beaten icing stays runny and will not hold its shape, while over-beaten egg white becomes dry and grainy. Beating until thick lets the egg white proteins trap air and set into a stable foam.
“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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