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 ↓
Boston Cream
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup base
In a jug, combine 1 lb loaf sugar, 1 oz tartaric acid, and the beaten egg white.
Pour in 1 quart boiling water, stirring briskly until thoroughly mixed.
Serve
When ready to use, mix ⅓ cup of the mixture with ½ teaspoon carbonate soda in a half tumbler of water.
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
- Provides sweetness and the body of the syrup.
- Tartaric acid
- Supplies acidity that gives the drink its sharp, tangy flavour.
- Carbonate soda
- Reacts with the acid to release carbon dioxide, making the drink fizz.
- Egg white
- Helps clarify the syrup and gives it a light, foamy texture.
The step that matters
Mixing the carbonate soda into the syrup. Carbonate soda must be combined with the acidic syrup at the moment of serving, because the fizzing reaction releases carbon dioxide quickly and the drink goes flat if it is mixed too early.
“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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