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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break the sugar into large lumps and place it in a clean preserving pan.
For syrup, measure 3 quarts of water for 6 pounds of sugar; for candying, use 2½ pints of water.
Beat the egg white lightly and mix it with the water.
Pour the mixture over the sugar and let it stand until nearly dissolved.
Clarify the syrup
Stir thoroughly and place over gentle heat without disturbing it once scum forms.
Boil for 5 minutes, then remove from heat and skim off the scum after a couple of minutes.
Return to heat, add a little reserved cold water, and continue skimming until the syrup is clear.
Strain through muslin or a thin cloth and transfer to a clean pan for further boiling.
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
- Egg white
- Its proteins coagulate when heated and trap impurities, which rise as scum that can be skimmed off.
- Sugar
- Forms the syrup itself; it is the base that gets dissolved and then clarified.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum. Once scum forms, stirring or disturbing the pan can break it up and mix impurities back into the syrup. Skim gently and steadily so the syrup comes out clear rather than 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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