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 ↓
Soda Water
Ingredients
Directions
Make the base
Dissolve the sugar and tartaric acid in warm water.
While warm, add the beaten egg whites and mix well.
Bottle the mixture and cork it tightly.
Serve
To serve, mix 1 tablespoon of the soda water with a tumbler of water and your chosen flavor extract.
Add 1 teaspoon of baking soda and drink immediately.
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
- Adds sweetness and body to the liquid base.
- Tartaric acid
- Provides sharp acidity and reacts with baking soda to release carbon dioxide.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, creating the fizz.
- Egg whites
- Add protein that helps bind and foam the mixture as it is combined.
The step that matters
Adding the baking soda and drinking immediately. Baking soda reacts with the tartaric acid to release carbon dioxide, which is what makes the drink fizz. That gas escapes quickly once the mixture is stirred, so the drink should be consumed right away while it is still effervescent.
“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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