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 ↓
Ice Cream Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil sugar and water until the mixture is thick enough to hold its shape.
Whip and combine
Beat the egg whites until very stiff.
Pour the hot syrup onto the beaten egg whites, one tablespoon at a time, until all the syrup is used.
Dissolve the citric acid in 1 teaspoon of water.
Add the dissolved citric acid just before spreading the icing on the 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
- Sugar
- Forms a thick syrup that sets into a sweet, glossy icing structure.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to a stiff foam that gives the icing its light, airy structure.
- Citric acid
- Adds acidity that helps stabilise the whipped egg white foam.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites. Adding the syrup slowly, a little at a time, keeps the hot syrup from cooking the egg whites unevenly and deflating the foam. Pouring steadily while beating keeps the icing smooth and stable.
“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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