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 ↓
A New Method of Clarifying Sugar to an Extreme Whiteness Not to Be Equalled, Fit for Liqueur Drops, Bons Bons, and Objects Extremely White
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break the sugar into pieces and place it in a pan with water.
Beat the ivory-black and egg whites together, then add to the pan.
Clarify the syrup
Melt the mixture over moderate heat, ensuring it does not boil.
Occasionally add cold water to prevent boiling.
Once melted, pass the syrup through a flannel bag until clear.
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 clarifying mixture is strained from.
- Egg whites
- Coagulate with heat and trap impurities, which can then be removed by straining.
- Ivory-black
- Adsorbs colour and impurities so the syrup can be made clear.
The step that matters
Keeping the mixture from boiling. Boiling can cause the egg white to rise and mix impurities back into the syrup, so the liquid must stay below a boil while it melts and clarifies. Adding cold water helps control the temperature.
“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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