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 for Compotes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break the sugar into small lumps and place in an unlined copper pan.
Whisk the cold water with the egg white and add to the pan.
Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Clarify
Heat the pan on the fire, stirring with an unlined copper spoon until it begins to boil.
Remove from heat and let it boil at the side of the pan, adding another pint of cold water occasionally.
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
- Fine loaf sugar
- Forms the syrup that is clarified; it is the main substance being purified.
- Egg white
- Binds impurities as it cooks, so they rise and can be skimmed off clear.
The step that matters
Letting the syrup boil at the side of the pan. Boiling gently at the side keeps the egg white raft from breaking up and mixing back into the syrup, which would leave it 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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