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 for Ices
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a pot.
Bring to a boil and cook for 10 minutes.
Skim off any foam that forms on the surface.
Use the sugar
Use this clarified sugar in place of regular sugar for all water ices.
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
- Provides sweetness and the dissolved syrup base that the clarified liquid is made from.
- Egg white
- Coagulates as it heats and traps impurities, so they can be skimmed off the syrup.
The step that matters
Skim off the foam. Foam carries impurities to the surface. Removing it as it forms keeps the syrup clear, and leaving it in can make the finished sugar cloudy and less clean-tasting in ices.
“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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