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 the syrup
Break sugar into large lumps and place in a clean preserving pan.
Measure 3 quarts of water for 6 lbs of sugar for syrup.
For candying, use less than half that amount 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
Stir thoroughly and place over gentle heat without disturbing once scum forms.
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, and repeat skimming until clear.
Strain through muslin or 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.
-
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 bulk of the syrup and provides sweetness once dissolved.
- Egg white
- Binds to impurities and rises as scum, which is skimmed off to clarify the syrup.
The step that matters
Heating without disturbing the scum. Once scum forms, stirring or heating hard breaks it apart and mixes impurities back into the syrup. Gentle heat lets the coagulated egg white float impurities to the surface for clean 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.
More clarified sugar recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.