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, Soda
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine 3 pounds of loaf sugar, 2.5 ounces of tartaric acid, and 2 quarts of cold water in a preserving pan.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then add the beaten egg whites.
Boil for exactly 4 minutes, stirring continuously.
Strain the mixture and let it cool.
Add 1 teaspoon of flavoring essence once cool.
Store the liquid in a tightly corked bottle.
Serve
Mix 2 tablespoons of the syrup with half a tumbler of water.
Stir in 1/3 teaspoon of carbonate of soda.
Drink while effervescing.
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
- Loaf sugar
- Provides sweetness and the bulk of the syrup body.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds acidity and, reacting with carbonate of soda, produces the fizz.
- Egg whites
- Clarify the syrup, collecting impurities that are removed when it is strained.
- Carbonate of soda
- Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, creating the effervescence.
The step that matters
Boil for exactly 4 minutes, stirring continuously. Boiling the egg whites with the syrup coagulates them so they trap impurities for straining. Overboiling can darken the sugar and change its flavour, while stirring prevents the whites from scorching on the pan base.
“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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