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 ↓
Preserving Fruits and Vegetables By Means of Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the sugar in the water in a preserving pan.
Add the egg white and beat the mixture well.
Boil the mixture slightly to create a syrup of the right strength.
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
- Double-refined sugar
- Provides sweetness and the body of the syrup as it dissolves and concentrates.
- Egg white
- Binds to impurities during heating so they can be skimmed off, clarifying the syrup.
The step that matters
Boil to the right strength. Boiling concentrates the sugar solution; too little boiling leaves a syrup that is too thin and may spoil, while over-boiling makes it too thick and prone to crystallising. Stop once the syrup reaches the intended strength.
“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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