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To Clarify Sugar

A method to clarify sugar by dissolving in water and removing impurities.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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

Prepare the syrup

  1. Break sugar into large lumps and place in a clean preserving pan.

  2. For syrup, measure 3 quarts of water for 6 lbs of sugar.

  3. Beat the egg white lightly and mix with the water.

  4. Pour the egg mixture over the sugar and let it stand until nearly dissolved.

Clarify

  1. Stir thoroughly and place over gentle heat without disturbing once scum forms.

  2. Boil for five minutes, then remove from heat and skim off the scum.

  3. Return to heat, add a little reserved cold water, and repeat skimming until clear.

  4. Strain through muslin or thin cloth into a clean pan for further boiling.

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 that is clarified and later boiled further.
Egg white
Coagulates when heated, trapping impurities so they rise as scum to be skimmed off.

The step that matters

Skimming until clear. Scum must be removed while the syrup is gently heated and undisturbed. Stirring after scum forms breaks it apart and mixes impurities back into the syrup, leaving it 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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