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 Clarify Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the syrup
Break the sugar into small pieces and place it in a cleaned brass pan.
Pour the water over the sugar and let it sit for a while before heating.
Add the beaten egg white and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
Once it boils, add the cold water and let it boil again.
Remove from heat and let it settle for 15 minutes, then skim off the scum.
Boil and test
Boil again until thick.
Test by dropping a little into cold water; if it hardens, it is ready.
Immediately add the fruit to be preserved and boil.
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
- Loaf sugar
- Forms the sweet syrup that the fruit is cooked in and preserved by.
- Beaten egg white
- Coagulates as it heats, collecting impurities so they can be skimmed off clear.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum after settling. Impurities rise to the surface as the syrup heats. Letting it settle off the heat and then skimming removes them, so the sugar comes out clear rather than cloudy.
“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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