Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 ↓
Frosting for Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve and combine
Pour just enough water over the sugar to dissolve the lumps.
Beat the egg whites lightly, then add them to the sugar and water mixture.
Cook and beat
Place the bowl in a vessel of boiling water and beat the mixture.
Continue beating until it thickens and becomes clear, then remove from heat.
Cool and spread
Keep beating until the mixture is cold and thick, then spread it on the cake with a knife.
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 + eggtop 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
- White sugar
- Sweetens the frosting and dissolves into the water to form a syrup that thickens as it cooks.
- Egg whites
- Their proteins trap air when beaten and set with gentle heat, giving the frosting its light, thick structure.
The step that matters
Beat until cold and thick. Heat from the boiling water partly sets the egg white proteins while beating. Continued beating traps air and cools the mixture into a thick, stable foam. Stopping early leaves it runny and unable to hold its shape on the 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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