Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cake Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Sift the icing sugar through a fine sieve.
In a clean bowl, combine the egg white and lemon juice.
Make and spread the icing
Gradually add the icing sugar while mixing with a wooden spoon until smooth.
Spread a layer over the cake using a knife dipped in cold water.
Decorate
Use the same icing to decorate the edges with a forcer.
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 + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 dissolves.
- Egg white
- Adds body and binds the sugar into a smooth, spreadable icing.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps keep the icing from tasting cloying.
The step that matters
Gradually add the icing sugar. Adding the sugar in small portions lets each addition dissolve and blend evenly into the egg white. Dumping it all in at once leaves lumps and an uneven texture that is hard to fix by mixing longer.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Datesfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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