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 ↓
Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the berries
Let the strawberries sit in sugar for a few hours.
Drain the juice and spread the berries on the cake layers.
Make the frosting
In a saucepan, boil the strawberry juice with 5 tablespoons of sugar.
Stir in the beaten egg white and 1 teaspoon of dissolved cornstarch.
Add more cornstarch if the frosting is not thick enough.
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
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit flavor and the juice that becomes the frosting.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the berries and the juice, and helps draw out their liquid.
- Egg white
- Adds body and a light, airy texture to the frosting as it sets.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the strawberry juice when heated, so the frosting holds its shape.
The step that matters
Stir in the cornstarch and egg white. Cornstarch must be fully dissolved and heated to thicken, since starch granules swell only once hot. Adding it unevenly can leave lumps or a runny frosting, and overheating can scramble the egg white.
“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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