Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Conserve Icings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
Cook 5 pounds of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar in a saucepan until it reaches a soft ball stage.
Remove from heat and mix in 1 pound of casting cream.
Using a wooden paddle, stir and rub the syrup on the sides of the pan until it appears whitish and cloudy.
Whip in the 2 egg whites until light.
Add nuts and set
Mix in 1 to 2 pounds of coarsely chopped hickory or English walnuts.
Pour the mixture into a paper-lined tray.
Once cold, cut into squares or bars and allow to crystallize.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + walnuttop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Egg + walnuttop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,037 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Sugar
- Forms the sweet crystalline body of the icing as it cooks and recrystallizes.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidity that helps prevent large sugar crystals and keeps the icing smooth.
- Casting cream
- Adds fat and moisture, giving the icing a softer, creamier texture.
- Egg whites
- Whipped in for lightness, adding air that makes the icing paler and fluffier.
- Hickory or english walnuts
- Add fat, crunch and nutty flavor to the finished icing.
The step that matters
Stirring the syrup on the pan sides until whitish and cloudy. Stirring and rubbing the cooled syrup seeds sugar crystals to form fine crystals. Stop too early and the icing stays clear and runny; overworked, it can set too hard before it is spread or cut.
Swap the walnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, egg):
- Almondfits better
- Pistachiofits better
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Walnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, egg. 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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