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Dessert

Orange Frosting

A citrus frosting made with orange rind, brandy, lemon juice, orange juice, egg yolk, and confectioner's sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Frosting

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the grated orange rind, brandy, lemon juice, and orange juice in a bowl.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 15 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture and add it to the slightly beaten egg yolk.

  4. Gradually add confectioner's sugar 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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and sugar 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

Egg yolk
Adds richness and body, helping the frosting hold together and feel smooth.
Confectioner's sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it is added, thickens the frosting to a spreadable consistency.
Orange rind
Contributes concentrated citrus aroma and flavour from the oils in the peel.

The step that matters

Adding the confectioner's sugar. Sugar should be added gradually, because too much at once makes the frosting stiff and hard to correct. Adding it in small amounts lets you stop as soon as it spreads well.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, lemon, egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, lemon, egg, sugar. 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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