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 ↓
Clarified Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
In a preserving pan, combine 4 pounds of loaf sugar and 2 quarts of water over heat.
When warm, add the beaten whites of 3 eggs mixed with ½ pint of water.
Boil the mixture, skim off impurities, and simmer until clear.
Strain the mixture through a fine straining 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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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
- Forms the syrup that is clarified, providing the sweetness and body of the finished liquid.
- Egg whites
- Coagulate when heated, trapping impurities so they can be skimmed off and leaving the syrup clear.
The step that matters
Simmering until clear. Egg white must be heated gently and brought to a boil so it coagulates and binds impurities. Boiling too hard or stirring it in can break up the raft, leaving the syrup 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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