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 ↓
To Clarify Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the syrup
Stir 8 lbs of sugar into 2 quarts of water and add the whites of 2 eggs.
Place the mixture over moderate heat (350°F / 175°C).
Clarify and use
As it boils, remove the scum until the mixture is clear.
Once clear, it is ready for use with fruit.
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
- Forms the sweet syrup that the clarified liquid is made from.
- Egg whites
- Coagulate with heat and trap impurities, which rise as scum that can be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum as it boils. Egg white coagulates as the syrup heats and carries impurities to the surface. Removing this scum while it forms keeps the syrup clear. If it is left to break up and mix back in, the syrup turns cloudy.
“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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