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 ↓
Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the sugar and water together until thick.
Pour the hot mixture over the beaten egg whites.
Beat the mixture together until cool.
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
- Sugar
- Forms a thick syrup that sets into a smooth, sweet icing.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to a foam that gives the icing lightness and body.
The step that matters
Pour the hot syrup over the egg whites. The hot sugar syrup cooks the egg whites as it is beaten in, building a stable, glossy structure. Pouring slowly while beating keeps the whites from scrambling and lets the mixture thicken evenly.
“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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