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Dessert

Almond Icing

A sweet icing made from sugar, water, egg whites, and bitter almond flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sugar syrup

  1. Wet the sugar with a small amount of water in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture without stirring until it begins to thicken.

Finish the icing

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until light.

  2. Slowly strain the boiled sugar into the egg whites while continuously beating.

  3. Add bitter almond flavoring to taste.

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 + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Sweetens the icing and, once boiled and beaten into the whites, gives it body.
Egg whites
Beaten to foam, they trap air and give the icing a light, airy texture.
Bitter almond flavoring
Adds the distinctive bitter almond aroma that defines the icing.

The step that matters

Slowly straining the boiled sugar into the egg whites while continuously beating. Hot sugar syrup added too quickly or without constant beating can clump or partly cook the egg whites. Pouring slowly while beating spreads the heat and sugar evenly, keeping the icing smooth and airy.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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