Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓
Florida Icing
Ingredients
Directions
Make the icing
In an earthen baking dish, combine egg whites and sugar without stirring.
Place the dish on hot coals and stir continuously until it reaches a boiling heat.
Remove from heat and beat until nearly cold.
Add tartaric acid and beat until thick and smooth.
For smoother icing, mash sugar lumps with boiling water before adding egg whites.
Finish and store
Ice cakes at night and store in a cupboard for a beautifully white and dry finish by morning.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped and cooked with sugar, they form the foam and body of the icing.
- White sugar
- Dissolves into the egg whites and sets with them to give the icing sweetness and firmness.
- Tartaric acid
- Acidity helps stabilise the egg white foam so the icing stays smooth and thick.
The step that matters
Stirring over the heat. Stirring only while the mixture heats keeps the egg whites from overcooking and clumping. Once it reaches a boil, beating it while it cools builds the thick, smooth texture the icing needs.
“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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