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 ↓
Frosting for Cake
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the frosting sugar and water together.
Remove from heat and stir in the beaten egg white.
Mix well and frost your cake with the mixture.
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
- Frosting sugar
- Provides sweetness and, once boiled with water, forms the bulk of the frosting.
- Egg white
- Whipped to a stiff froth, it adds airy volume and a light, fluffy texture to the frosting.
The step that matters
Stirring the beaten egg white in off the heat. Stirring the egg white in after removing the pan from the heat keeps it from scrambling or cooking too firmly, so the frosting stays smooth and fluffy rather than lumpy.
“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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