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 ↓
Rich Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine cold water and white sugar in a pot and dissolve over moderate heat.
Beat the egg white and add it to the sugar mixture before it warms up.
Watch for boiling; when it starts to overflow, add 1 teaspoon of cold water.
After boiling stops, return the pot to the heat and repeat this process three times.
On the last boil, remove from heat and let it settle.
Clarify and strain
Skim off the scum and strain the syrup through a jelly bag.
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
- White sugar
- Dissolves to form the syrup's sweetness and body.
- Egg white
- Binds to impurities as it heats, so they rise as scum that can be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Adding the cold water at the overflow point. Boiling syrup rises quickly and can overflow the pot. Adding a little cold water at that moment drops the temperature and calms the boil, letting the foam settle back without losing the syrup.
“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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