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Drink

Cream of Nectar

A thickened sweet syrup made from water, sugar, citric acid, corn starch, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cream of Nectar

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine the water, sugar, and citric acid.

  2. Heat the mixture until it is near boiling.

Thicken and finish

  1. In a small bowl, mix the corn starch with a little cold water until smooth.

  2. Add the corn starch mixture to the boiling liquid and stir well.

  3. Remove from heat and quickly stir in the beaten egg whites.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool, then skim off any foam and bottle for use.

  5. Optionally, flavor the mixture before bottling.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn starch
Thickens the liquid into a light, syrupy body as it heats.
Egg whites
Add foam and body, and their proteins help the mixture set lightly as it cools.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and body to the syrup.
Citric acid
Adds tartness that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Stirring in the beaten egg whites off the heat. Egg whites cook and clump when they meet very hot liquid, so they are added quickly after removing the pot from heat and stirred in to disperse them evenly.

“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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