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 ↓
Plain White Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Beat the egg white until thick.
Gradually add the powdered sugar while continuing to beat.
Set the icing in a very warm place to dry.
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 white
- Whipped into foam, it gives the icing its airy body and lets it set into a glossy coating.
- Powdered sugar
- Dissolves into the whipped egg white to add sweetness and thicken the icing.
The step that matters
Adding the powdered sugar gradually. Adding sugar slowly while beating keeps the foam stable. Dumping it in at once can deflate the whipped egg white and leave the icing lumpy and thin.
“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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