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Dessert

Minnesota Frosting

A light, airy frosting made from egg whites, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Minnesota Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Whip the whites

  1. Beat the egg whites until frothy, but not white.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar while beating briskly.

Finish the icing

  1. Flavor with vanilla extract.

  2. Do not beat the egg whites until stiff before adding sugar to ensure the icing dries properly.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 light foam that gives the icing its airy body and lets it set as it dries.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the foam to add sweetness and thicken it into a spreadable icing.

The step that matters

Keep the egg whites frothy, not stiff, before adding sugar. Egg whites beaten stiff hold less liquid to dissolve the sugar and can make the icing too firm to spread. Keeping them frothy lets the sugar blend in evenly so the icing dries properly, as the record directs.

“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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