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 ↓
Frosting for Dolly Varden
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the yolks of the eggs.
Add the pulverized sugar and mix well.
Set the frosting in a dark place to cool.
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 yolks
- Provide richness and emulsify with the sugar to give the frosting body and a smooth, thick texture.
- Pulverized sugar
- Sweetens the frosting and dissolves into the yolks, thickening it into a spreadable consistency.
The step that matters
Set the frosting in a dark place to cool. Cooling lets the mixture thicken and set to a spreadable consistency. Keeping it in the dark helps prevent light from degrading the egg yolks and fats, so the frosting stays smooth and its colour holds.
“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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