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 Cake
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Sift flour and sugar separately six times.
Make the batter
Beat egg whites until frothy, then add cream of tartar and beat until very light.
Slowly add sugar, allowing it to dissolve as you stir.
Gradually add flour to the mixture.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into an ungreased pan with a paper cap.
Do not open the oven door for 15 minutes after placing the cake inside.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 40 minutes.
Turn the cake upside down after baking, allowing it to gently fall from the pan.
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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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 foam that traps air, giving the cake its light, airy structure.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the airy foam together as the cake sets.
- Sugar
- Dissolves into the whipped whites, stabilizing the foam and sweetening the cake.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the egg whites, stabilizing the foam so it holds more air.
The step that matters
Do not open the oven door for 15 minutes after placing the cake inside. The batter's trapped air expands and the foam is still setting early in baking. Opening the door drops the temperature suddenly, which can cause the cake to collapse or sink.
“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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