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 ↓
Preserves, Jellies, Etc
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Dissolve 2 pounds of sugar in 1 pint of water.
Add the egg white and beat well.
Pour into a preserving kettle and stir with a wooden spoon.
When it begins to boil, add a little cold water.
Remove from heat.
Skim off the scum.
Repeat boiling.
Repeat skimming until the syrup is clear.
Cook the fruit
For each pound of fruit, use ¾ pound of sugar.
Boil fruit in a porcelain-lined or clean metal dish.
Drain fruit from syrup.
Dry the fruit
Dry in a moderate oven.
Sift powdered sugar over the fruit every 6-8 hours while drying.
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
- White sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, when boiled into syrup, preserves it by drawing out moisture.
- Egg white
- Its proteins rise to the surface when beaten into the syrup, carrying impurities that are then skimmed off.
- Fruit
- Provides the flavour and texture of the preserve, and is cooked gently in the sugar syrup.
- Powdered loaf sugar
- Coats the drying fruit, adding a sweet, dry surface that keeps pieces from sticking.
The step that matters
Skim until the syrup is clear. Scum left in the syrup clouds the preserve and can spoil its flavour. Egg white binds impurities as it cooks, so they must be removed fully before the fruit is added.
“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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