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Dessert

Boiled Icing

A boiled icing made from sugar, milk, butter, and flavoring, used as a filling or spread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Boiled Icing

Ingredients

Directions

Make the icing

  1. Combine sugar, milk, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Boil for 15 minutes.

  3. Remove from heat and add vanilla or desired flavoring.

  4. Beat until cool.

Make the brown sugar icing

  1. Boil brown sugar, butter, and sweet cream together for 12 minutes.

  2. Add vanilla.

  3. Let cool before spreading.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, once boiled and cooled, the solid structure of the icing.
Milk
Dissolves the sugar and adds moisture and richness to the boiled mixture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, creamy texture and mouthfeel.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel-like depth of flavor.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and moisture, making the icing softer and creamier.

The step that matters

Beat until cool. Beating while the boiled sugar cools encourages fine sugar crystals to form, giving a smooth, creamy texture. Spreading too early, while the icing is still hot and runny, can leave it thin and grainy.

“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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