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 ↓
Petits Fours
Ingredients
Directions
Coat the fruits
Soak the fruits in egg white and drain them well in your hands.
Place the fruits on a towel for a moment, then handle them again to ensure even moisture.
Sugar and finish
Pour hot sugar onto a large sheet of paper and roll the fruits in it, removing the paper from one side, then the other, two or three times.
If needed, roll the fruits in the same sugar again without reheating it, working quickly.
Place the fruits on a sieve to remove excess sugar; the thickness of the sugar crust depends on the amount of egg white left on the fruit.
For best results, use small batches and ensure the fruits are well covered in sugar.
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
- Fruits
- Provide the core that the egg white and sugar coating are applied to.
- Egg white
- Acts as a sticky binder so the sugar adheres to the fruit surface.
- Sugar
- Forms a crisp, glossy crust around the fruit as it cools.
The step that matters
Draining the fruit well after the egg white soak. Excess moisture or egg white left on the fruit makes the sugar crust thicker and uneven, and water can make it weep or dissolve the sugar.
“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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