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 ↓
Boiled Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan.
Boil on low heat until the mixture is waxy or stringy.
Finish the icing
Remove from heat and add the egg whites.
Beat until the icing is cool and fluffy.
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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the icing and, cooked into a syrup, gives it body and a set structure.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into the hot syrup, they trap air and create a light, fluffy texture.
The step that matters
Boil until waxy or stringy. The syrup must reach the right concentration. Stopping too early leaves the icing runny, while cooking too long makes it hard and grainy as it cools.
“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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