Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Rock Sugar of All Colours
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sugar paste
In a small pot, mix the egg white with enough powdered sugar to make a thick paste.
Cook and combine
Boil the syrup in a pan until it is almost caramel.
To vary the color, mix your chosen food coloring with the egg and sugar before adding it to the syrup.
Remove the syrup from the heat and stir in the egg and sugar mixture quickly.
Pour the mixture into a sieve lined with paper before it cools.
Set
Once cold, the mixture will harden like rock.
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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Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Syrup + eggtop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,995 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Syrup
- Cooks down to a caramel base that becomes the hard, glassy body of the candy.
- Egg white
- Binds the powdered sugar into a paste that helps the mixture set and hold its shape.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and bulk, thickening the egg white into a workable paste.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg and sugar mixture quickly. Off the heat, the paste must blend evenly before the mixture cools and thickens, or it will set in lumps and uneven streaks.
“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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