Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Soda Water
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the tartaric acid, egg whites, sugar, and water together.
Add the wintergreen essence after boiling.
Bottle the mixture.
Serve
To prepare the drink, mix 2 tablespoons of syrup with 1 glass of cold water.
Stir in ¼ teaspoon of soda.
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.
-
Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + syruptop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,995 recipes
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Help clarify the syrup by binding impurities that rise and are skimmed off during boiling.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds sharpness and helps keep the sugar syrup from crystallising.
- White sugar
- Provides sweetness and body to the syrup.
- Wintergreen essence
- Gives the drink its characteristic minty aroma and flavour.
- Soda
- Adds fizz when stirred into the drink, releasing carbon dioxide.
The step that matters
Stir in the soda. Soda reacts with the acid in the drink to release carbon dioxide, which creates the fizz. Adding it too early, or stirring vigorously before serving, lets the gas escape and the drink goes flat.
“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.
More soda water recipes
You might also like
Orange Syrup47 recipes
Orgeat Syrup13 recipes
Simple Syrup13 recipes
Vegetable Soup350 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.