Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Water Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Sift the icing sugar through a fine sieve into a pan.
Add the water and vanilla.
Stir over gentle heat until the mixture is liquid and warm.
Use immediately, or it will set in the pan.
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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Icing sugar
- Provides the bulk and sweetness, and sets into a firm, smooth coating as it cools.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so the icing becomes liquid enough to spread or pour.
- Vanilla
- Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that rounds out the sweetness.
The step that matters
Use immediately, or it will set in the pan.. As the warm icing cools, the dissolved sugar begins to recrystallise and thicken. If it waits too long it stiffens in the pan and can no longer be spread or poured smoothly.
“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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