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 ↓
Sea Foam Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the taffy
In a pan, combine brown sugar with enough cold water to moisten.
Boil the mixture until it reaches the taffy stage when dropped in cold water.
Whip and fold
Beat the egg whites until stiff froth forms.
Pour the hot taffy into the beaten egg whites.
Beat the mixture until it becomes stiff.
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
- Brown sugar
- Provides the sweetness and caramel flavor, and forms the taffy that sets the candy.
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam that traps air and gives the candy its light, airy structure.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar to the taffy stage. Boiling the sugar to the correct temperature controls how firm the candy sets. Too little cooking leaves it soft and sticky, while too much makes it hard and brittle.
“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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