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Dessert

Angels' Food

A light, airy cake made from whipped egg whites, sugar, flour, cream of tartar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Angels' Food

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Sift the flour four times, then add the cream of tartar and sift again.

  2. Measure and sift the sugar.

  3. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  4. Gradually add the sugar, then the flour, and finally the vanilla, while continuing to beat. Do not stop beating until the mixture is in the pan.

Bake

  1. Bake for 40 minutes at 350°F (175°C), without opening the oven for the first 15 minutes.

  2. Check for doneness; if not done, let it bake a few moments longer.

Make the icing

  1. For icing, boil the sugar with just enough water to moisten it.

  2. Slowly pour the boiling sugar over the beaten egg whites.

  3. Dissolve the citric acid in 1 tablespoon of water and add enough to flavor the icing.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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
Beaten to a stiff froth, they trap air and give the cake its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, beaten with the whites, helps stabilize the foam.
Flour
Provides the light structure that holds the cake's airy foam together as it sets.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the egg whites, helping them form a stiffer, more stable foam.

The step that matters

Do not stop beating until the mixture is in the pan. Once the flour and sugar are folded into the whites, the foam begins to deflate. Stopping early lets air escape, leading to a dense, flat cake.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, cream, egg):

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Strawberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, cream, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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