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 ↓
Boiled Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar and water in a saucepan until clear.
Whip the frosting
Beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff peaks form.
Remove the sugar mixture from heat and quickly add the beaten egg whites.
Continue beating the mixture until it cools.
Flavor to taste and spread on your cake with a knife before it hardens.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
-
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
- Dissolves into the water to form a syrup that sets into a smooth, sweet frosting.
- Egg whites
- Trap air when beaten, giving the frosting a light, stable, fluffy structure.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten egg whites to the hot syrup. The syrup must be hot but not burnt, and the whites must be added quickly while the syrup is still hot, so the heat cooks the egg proteins slightly and the foam stays stable as it cools. Adding it too late lets the syrup cool and the frosting seize or stay loose.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.