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.
Measure 3 quarts of water for 6 pounds of sugar for syrup; for candying use 2½ pints of water.
Beat the egg white lightly and mix it with the water.
Pour the egg mixture over the sugar and let it stand until nearly dissolved.
Stir the mixture thoroughly.
Clarify the syrup
Place the mixture over gentle heat.
Do not disturb once scum begins to form; let it boil for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and skim off the scum after a couple of minutes.
Return to heat.
Add a little reserved cold water.
Skim until the syrup is clear.
Strain and finish
Strain through muslin or a thin cloth.
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
- Sugar
- Forms the syrup and provides the sweetness of the finished clarified sugar.
- Egg white
- Binds to impurities and rises as scum, which is skimmed off to clarify the syrup.
The step that matters
Do not disturb once scum begins to form. Stirring or moving the pan once scum forms breaks it up and mixes impurities back into the syrup, leaving it cloudy. Letting it rise undisturbed lets the coagulated egg white carry the impurities to the surface for skimming.
“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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