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 ↓
White Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and boiling water.
Boil the mixture until it reaches a waxy consistency.
Make the icing
Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg whites.
Beat the mixture until it cools.
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
- Granulated sugar
- Dissolves into the syrup, providing sweetness and body that sets the icing as it cools.
- Egg whites
- Whipped foam gives the icing its light, airy structure and volume.
The step that matters
Boil the syrup to a waxy consistency. The sugar concentration in the syrup determines how firmly the icing sets. Under-boiled syrup leaves the icing soft and runny, while over-boiled syrup makes it hard and brittle once cool.
“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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