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 Boil Sugar From Syrup to Candy, or to Caramel
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break sugar into large lumps and place the lumps in a clean preserving pan.
Measure 3 quarts of water for 6 pounds of sugar.
Beat the white of 1 egg until separated, then mix the beaten egg white with the water.
Pour the egg mixture over the sugar and let it stand until nearly dissolved.
Stir thoroughly.
Clarify and boil
Place over gentle heat without disturbing it and boil for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and skim off the scum.
Return to heat and add a little reserved cold water when boiling begins.
Skim until clear.
Strain through muslin or thin cloth.
Return to a clean pan for further boiling.
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
- Forms the bulk of the syrup and provides sweetness and body once dissolved and boiled.
- Spring water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into a syrup.
- Egg white
- Coagulates when heated, trapping impurities so they rise as scum that can be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Skim until clear. Impurities from the sugar float to the surface as scum; removing them thoroughly while the syrup boils keeps the caramel clear. Skimming too little leaves cloudiness that straining alone may not remove.
“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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