Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the frosting
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat well.
Pipe the designs
Make a cornucopia shape from white paper.
Fill the cornucopia with frosting.
Cut a small hole in the end and squeeze the frosting through to create designs.
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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Egg + sugartop 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 stiff foam that gives the frosting its structure and holds its shape.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the frosting and stabilizes the whipped foam as it is beaten in.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten to stiff peaks to trap air and form a foam that holds its shape. Under-beaten whites produce a runny frosting that will not hold fine designs, while over-beaten whites turn grainy and dry.
“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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