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Dessert

Soda Cream

A frothy dessert made by boiling sugar, tartaric acid, cream of tartar, and Epsom salts, then adding beaten egg whites, cold water, and wheat flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Soda Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine 4 quarts of water and 5 pounds of loaf sugar in a large pot.

  2. Add 4 ounces of tartaric acid, 2 ounces of cream of tartar, and 1 ounce of Epsom salts.

  3. Mix well, starting with the sugar.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  5. Remove from heat and let it cool to blood warm.

Add the egg white mixture

  1. Beat the 4 egg whites in a separate bowl until frothy.

  2. Mix the beaten egg whites with 1 pint of cold water and 4 large tablespoons of wheat flour.

  3. Add this mixture to the syrup and bring it back to a boil.

  4. Flavor to your taste.

Note

  1. Make the recipe in a brass kettle.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + wheattop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
Beaten whites foam and help clarify and lighten the syrup as they set during boiling.
Wheat flour
Thickens the liquid slightly and helps bind the mixture as it heats.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping keep sugar from crystallizing and adding tang.
Tartaric acid
Adds sharp acidity and works with the sugar to keep the syrup smooth.

The step that matters

Bring the egg white mixture back to a boil. Egg whites must be fully beaten and mixed with cold water before adding to warm syrup, so they disperse evenly rather than clumping. Reheating to a boil lets the whites coagulate and rise to the top, carrying impurities with them so the syrup can be strained clear.

“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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