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
Combine water and sugar over moderate heat to dissolve.
Stir in the egg white.
As foam rises, skim it off until the syrup is clear and transparent.
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
- Sugar
- Dissolves into the water to form the syrup, providing sweetness and body.
- Egg white
- Coagulates as it heats, trapping impurities so they rise as foam that can be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Skimming the foam until clear. The egg white coagulates as the syrup heats and carries suspended impurities up into the foam. Skimming too early or too late leaves cloudiness or removes syrup, so the syrup should be skimmed steadily until it looks clear.
“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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