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Dessert

Divinity Fondant

Fondant made from sugar, corn syrup, boiling water, and egg white, cooked to soft ball stage and folded.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Divinity Fondant

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan over low heat, combine sugar and boiling water until the sugar is dissolved, then add corn syrup.

  2. Increase heat and bring to a boil.

Whip and cook

  1. Beat the egg white until light, then add 2 tablespoons of syrup when it reaches boiling; continue beating until light.

  2. Boil the remaining syrup to the soft ball stage (240°F).

Form the fondant

  1. Slowly pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg white; fold with a knife until the mixture is white and firm enough to mold.

  2. Knead until smooth and shape into desired pieces.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Corn + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

  5. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves into the syrup and provides sweetness and the body of the fondant.
Corn syrup
Interferes with sugar crystal formation, keeping the fondant smooth rather than grainy.
Egg white
Beaten to a foam, it adds air and a light, aerated texture to the fondant.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup over the egg white. The syrup must be hot enough to cook the egg white and set the mixture, and it must be poured slowly while beating so the foam stays light instead of deflating.

“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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