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To Clarify Sugar

A method for clarifying sugar by boiling with water and egg whites to remove impurities before using as syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

To Clarify Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the syrup

  1. Combine ½ pint of water with each pound of sugar in a kettle.

  2. Add 1 egg white for every 5 pounds of sugar.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. When it rises, add ½ teacup of water.

  5. Boil again.

  6. Repeat this process two or three times.

  7. Set the kettle aside for 15 minutes.

  8. Remove the scum from the top.

  9. Pour off the syrup.

Finish

  1. Wash the kettle.

  2. Add the fruit you wish to preserve.

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).

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 base that preserves the fruit.
Egg white
Binds impurities so they rise as scum that can be removed, clarifying the syrup.

The step that matters

Removing the scum from the top. Egg white coagulates as it heats and traps impurities from the sugar. Skimming only after the syrup has settled and the scum has risen keeps the clarified syrup clear rather than 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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