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 Sweetmeats
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break the sugar into large lumps.
Combine the sugar and water in a bowl.
Clarify the syrup
Set the bowl over the fire and add the egg white.
Let it boil, then pour in a little cold water to check the boiling.
When it rises a second time, remove it from the heat.
Let it sit for 15 minutes to allow impurities to settle.
Skim off the black scum from the top.
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 syrup and provides sweetness, the base of the dish.
- Egg white
- Binds impurities as it cooks, so they rise into scum that can be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Pouring off the syrup. Pour quickly and leave the sediment behind. Stirring or tipping the bowl too far lifts settled impurities back into the syrup, leaving it 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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