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 ↓
Rock Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Clarify the loaf sugar.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks and place the whites in a pan.
Sift some loaf sugar into the egg whites to make Royal Icing and mix thoroughly.
Pour the icing into small pots and add food coloring.
In a separate pan, add a little fresh sugar to the clarified sugar and boil until it reaches the 'Crack' stage.
Remove from heat, dip a spoon into the Royal Icing, and add it to the syrup.
Mix briskly for a few minutes until the syrup rises.
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
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