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 ↓
Cooked Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a saucepan.
Cook until a drop won't stick to a tin dish.
Make the frosting
Beat the egg whites to stiff froth.
Pour the boiling syrup onto the egg whites.
Beat until cool enough to spread on cake.
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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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, once cooked into syrup, the body that sets the frosting.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the mixture to stabilize the egg white foam and keep the frosting smooth.
The step that matters
Pouring the boiling syrup onto the egg whites. The hot syrup must be poured in a thin, steady stream while beating. This cooks the egg white proteins gently into a stable, glossy foam. Pouring too fast or too cold can leave the whites runny or grainy.
“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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