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 ↓
Icing for Fruit Tarts, Puffs, or Pastry
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the icing
Beat the egg whites in a half-pint mug until frothy.
Spread some of the mixture on the middle of the pie using a pastry brush.
Sugar and bake
Sift powdered sugar over the icing and press it down with your hand.
Wash the brush and gradually add water until the sugar dissolves.
Place in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 10 minutes.
Serve
Serve cold.
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 whites
- Whipped into a foam that traps air and gives the icing its light, set structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and, once dissolved, forms a thin sugar layer on the tart.
The step that matters
Beat the egg whites until frothy. Egg whites hold air only when their proteins are whipped into a stable foam. If they are underbeaten, the mixture stays runny and will not set into a light icing layer.
“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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