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
Combine egg white and water in a preserving pan and whisk until frothy.
Add loaf sugar and mix well.
Heat and clarify
Set over low heat until it gradually comes to a boil.
When boiling, add a little cold water and repeat until you've added ½ pint.
When thick scum forms on top, remove from heat and gently skim off the scum.
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 white
- Its proteins coagulate with heat and trap impurities, which rise as scum that can be skimmed off.
- Loaf sugar
- Forms the syrup itself, providing sweetness and body once dissolved in the water.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar and carries the egg white through the heating step.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum. Scum forms as the egg white proteins coagulate and bind impurities. Removing the heat and skimming gently keeps the scum from breaking back into the syrup, which would leave 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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