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 ↓
Sugar Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Sift the icing sugar to remove lumps.
Beat the egg whites in a bowl until stiff.
Gradually mix in the icing sugar and lemon juice.
Finish and decorate
Spread the icing over the almond icing using a knife dipped in hot water.
Allow to harden and decorate as desired with icing pipes.
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 sweetness and bulk, and sets into a smooth, firm coating as it dries.
- Egg whites
- Whipped to stiff foam, they give the icing its light body and help it set.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and helps keep the icing white.
The step that matters
Gradually mix in the icing sugar and lemon juice. Adding the sugar in small portions keeps the mixture from becoming too stiff or lumpy. Too much sugar at once can collapse the whipped egg white foam, leaving the icing dense and hard to spread.
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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