Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓
Ornamental Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the frosting
In a bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy.
Add tartaric acid and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add powdered sugar until the mixture is thick.
Pipe and decorate
Prepare a paper cornucopia and pipe the frosting through the small end in your desired design.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its light structure and body.
- Tartaric acid
- Acidity that stabilizes the whipped egg white foam and helps it hold stiff peaks.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the frosting and thickens it into a stiff, pipeable consistency.
The step that matters
Add tartaric acid and beat to stiff peaks. Acid helps egg white proteins stay stable, so the foam holds its shape. Under-beating leaves the frosting too loose to pipe, while over-beating can make it dry and 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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