Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Icing. No.1
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Dissolve the sugar in water and boil until it reaches a brittle stage.
Beat the whites of the eggs until stiff.
Pour the hot sugar over the beaten egg whites and stir well.
Finish and use
Add flavoring if desired and continue to beat until well combined.
Use the icing while hot.
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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Boiled with water into a syrup that sweetens and, as it cools, sets the icing firm.
- Egg whites
- Beaten into a foam that traps air, giving the icing its light, fluffy structure.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot sugar over the beaten whites. The hot syrup partly cooks the egg-white proteins, which helps the foam hold its shape. Pouring it in a thin stream while beating keeps the foam from deflating and prevents the syrup from cooling into lumps.
“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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