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Dessert

Boilbd Frosting

A frosting made by boiling sugar and water, then folding in beaten egg white and optional marshmallows.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Boilbd Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Add cream of tartar to the sugar.

  2. Pour in the boiling water and boil until it threads from the spoon; do not stir after the sugar dissolves.

Finish the frosting

  1. While boiling, beat the egg white to stiff peaks.

  2. Gradually pour the syrup into the beaten egg white, adding the marshmallows.

  3. Flavor and beat constantly until the frosting reaches a spreadable consistency.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Granulated sugar
Forms the syrup that sets into a sweet, glossy frosting structure.
Egg white
Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the sugar syrup, helping keep the frosting smooth and stable.

The step that matters

Pouring the syrup into the egg white. The syrup must be hot and poured in a slow, steady stream while beating. Pouring too fast or letting the egg white deflate can cause the foam to collapse, leaving a runny frosting that will not hold its shape.

“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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