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Dessert

Angel Food

A light cake made from beaten egg whites, powdered sugar, flour, cream of tartar, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Angel Food

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the egg whites until very stiff.

  2. Add the vanilla and whip in thoroughly.

  3. Sift the powdered sugar, flour, and cream of tartar together 8 times.

  4. Gently mix the sifted ingredients into the egg whites.

Bake and finish

  1. Fill prepared molds and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Once cooled, brush off crumbs and icing with your choice of icing, coloring as desired.

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

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

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

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

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that traps air, giving the cake its lift and light structure.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's airy crumb once baked.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cake and, being very fine, helps keep the crumb tender and delicate.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the egg whites, stabilizing the foam so it holds its volume.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the sweetness of the cake.

The step that matters

Gently mix the sifted ingredients into the egg whites. The whipped whites hold air that makes the cake rise. Vigorous stirring deflates the foam, so the cake bakes up dense and short instead of light.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Strawberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, egg, cream. 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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