Why it works: Egg and sugar 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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Whip the egg whites in a large bowl with 4 to 5 pints of water.
Break the sugar into a large saucepan and add two-thirds of the water.
Clarify
Heat the mixture until it rises, then add a little cold water and remove from heat.
Skim off any foam that rises to the surface.
Continue this process until no more foam appears.
Strain
Strain the mixture through a wet linen or flannel bag.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg whites
- As they heat, they coagulate and trap impurities, which rise as foam that can be skimmed off.
- Sugar
- The main ingredient, which is dissolved and purified to give a clear, clean-tasting syrup.
The step that matters
Heating until the mixture rises. As the syrup nears boiling, the egg whites coagulate and trap impurities. Removing it from heat and adding cold water stops it boiling over, and skimming lifts the trapped impurities off the surface.
“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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