Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Boiled Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a saucepan, combine the sugar and boiling water.
Add the vinegar and boil without stirring until it spins a thread.
Finish the icing
Pour the hot syrup over the well-beaten egg whites.
Beat the mixture until it cools.
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 + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Vinegar + eggtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,922 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Vinegar and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,922 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
- Dissolves into the syrup that sets into the sweet, glossy body of the icing.
- Egg whites
- Whipped with the hot syrup to form a foam that holds the icing's airy structure.
- Vinegar
- Acidity helps keep the sugar syrup from crystallising, giving a smoother icing.
The step that matters
Boil without stirring until it spins a thread. Stirring can trigger sugar crystals, which make the icing grainy. The syrup must reach the right concentration, so stop boiling when it forms a thread, otherwise the icing may be too soft or too hard.
“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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