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 ↓
Choice Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine 2 pounds of loaf sugar and 1 pint of fresh, clear water in a porcelain kettle or saucepan.
Dissolve the sugar without heating, then stir in the beaten egg white.
Bring the mixture to a boil, skimming off any scum until it is perfectly clear.
Cook and seal the fruit
Add the fruit gradually, boiling gently without breaking it.
Prepare glass cans in a pan of water for canning.
Once the fruit is scalded, place it in the cans, pour the syrup over it, and seal.
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
- Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved in water, forms the syrup that preserves it.
- Egg white
- Binds to impurities when boiled, so scum rises and can be skimmed off for a clear syrup.
- Fruit
- Provides the main flavor and body of the preserves.
The step that matters
Adding the fruit gradually while boiling gently. Vigorous boiling breaks the fruit apart and makes the preserves mushy. Adding it in batches keeps the mixture at a steady temperature so the pieces hold their shape while the syrup penetrates them.
“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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