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 ↓
Ornamental Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Combine sugar, egg whites, and cold water in the top of a double boiler, mix well, and place over hot water.
Beat constantly with an egg beater until the mixture is stiff.
Add flavoring and spread on cake.
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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that gives the icing its stiff, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Dissolves into the whites and sets firm as the icing cools, adding sweetness.
The step that matters
Beat constantly over hot water until stiff. Heating the whites while beating cooks and stabilises the foam so it holds its shape. Stopping early leaves a runny icing that will not hold on the cake, while overheating can make it grainy or clumpy.
“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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