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 ↓
Syrup for Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Combine sugar and water in a porcelain-lined kettle.
Set the kettle on the fire.
Beat the egg white slightly and mix it into the sugar-water mixture before it heats up.
Once it begins to boil, skim off any scum.
Allow it to boil until no more scum rises.
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
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the sweet body of the syrup and sets its thickness as it dissolves and cooks.
- Egg white
- Its proteins coagulate as the syrup heats, trapping impurities so they rise as scum to be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum while it boils. Impurities from the sugar rise to the surface as the syrup heats. Skimming them until none rise leaves a clear syrup, and the egg white helps gather them into the scum.
“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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