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 Clakify Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break the sugar into large lumps.
In a pot, combine the sugar and water with the egg white, whisked well.
Heat over medium until it boils.
Clarify
When it starts to rise, check it with a little cold water.
Once it rises again, remove from heat and let it sit for 20 minutes.
Gently remove the scum from the surface.
Quickly pour the syrup into a vessel, leaving the sediment behind.
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
- Forms the sweet syrup base that the clarifying process purifies.
- Egg white
- Coagulates as it heats, trapping impurities so they rise and can be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Checking the boil with cold water. When syrup reaches a boil it rises sharply and can boil over. Testing with a little cold water shows when it has risen and is about to rise again, so the pot can be lifted off the heat at the right moment. Removing the pot too early leaves impurities in the syrup, and too late risks a messy overflow.
“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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