Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓
Angels' Food
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Make the batter
Sift the sugar 2 or 3 times, then add it very lightly to the egg whites.
Sift the cream of tartar through the flour after sifting the flour alone, then add it carefully to the mixture, mixing gently.
Add rose water or lemon for flavor.
Bake and cool
Pour the batter into a bright cake pan without buttering it.
Bake for about 45 minutes, testing with a straw.
Let it cool gradually by leaving the oven door open.
If the pan has a tube, turn it upside down; if not, set it up on something.
Once completely cool, remove the cake from the pan.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the cake its light, airy structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Stabilises the whipped egg whites, helping the foam hold its volume.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
- Flour
- Provides the light starch structure that sets around the egg white foam as it bakes.
The step that matters
Folding the sugar and flour into the egg whites. Deflating the foam by overmixing or handling roughly lowers the volume and makes the cake dense. Sugar and flour should be added lightly and mixed gently to keep as much air as possible in the batter.
“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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