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 ↓
Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar and egg white.
Mix and work the mixture well for at least 5 minutes using a wooden spoon until it is thick and white.
Decorate
Create a funnel using thick white paper and fill it with the icing mixture.
Squeeze the funnel to decorate cakes or charlotte russe as desired.
Alternatively, spread the icing on cakes with a knife for decoration.
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
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the icing and helps it set into a thick, smooth mixture.
- Egg white
- Provides structure and binds the sugar into a thick, stable icing.
The step that matters
Working the mixture for at least 5 minutes. Beating air into the egg white and sugar until thick and white gives the icing body and a stable texture. Stopping early leaves it loose, so it will not hold a funnel line or spread cleanly.
“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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