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 ↓
Brown Sugar Frosting
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a saucepan, combine brown sugar and boiling water.
Boil the mixture until it begins to bubble.
Finish the frosting
In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until stiff peaks form.
Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg white and continue to beat until the frosting is very stiff.
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
- Brown sugar
- Provides sweetness and the caramel flavour that defines the frosting.
- Egg white
- Whipped into a foam that gives the frosting its light, airy structure.
The step that matters
Pouring the hot syrup into the egg white. The syrup must be hot enough to cook the egg white slightly and stabilise the foam. Beating while pouring keeps the syrup from deflating the whites or setting in 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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