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Dessert

Simple Syrup

A clear sugar syrup made by boiling sugar and water, optionally with egg white, then cooled to syrupy consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Simple Syrup

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 ↓

Simple Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine 1 pound of sugar with ½ pint of water and let it sit to partially dissolve, stirring occasionally.

  2. If using, beat the egg white and stir it in for the sugar.

  3. Heat the mixture in a preserving kettle until it boils.

  4. Add ⅓ cup of cold water and let it boil again.

  5. Remove from heat and let it sit until the scum rises to the top, then skim it off.

  6. Boil the syrup until it reaches a syrupy consistency, testing by cooling a spoonful.

Serve

  1. For a refreshing drink, mix equal parts of sugar and water, adjusting to taste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

  1. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Provides sweetness and, as it dissolves and concentrates, the syrupy body of the finished liquid.
Egg white
Its proteins coagulate when heated, trapping and lifting impurities so they can be skimmed off.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum. Impurities rise to the surface as the syrup heats. Skimming them off before the final boil keeps the syrup clear and clean-tasting.

“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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