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
Combine the water, broken sugar pieces, and beaten egg white in a preserving pan.
Heat the mixture, stirring until it just reaches boiling point, then stop stirring.
Allow it to boil on one side for 10 minutes.
Remove it from heat.
Pour in a teacup of cold water.
Let it stand for 5 minutes.
Skim off any scum.
Return it to the heat.
Boil on one side, skimming off the scum as it rises until it is clear as amber.
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
- Lump sugar
- Forms the syrup base and provides sweetness once dissolved in the water.
- Egg white
- Binds impurities as it cooks so they rise to the surface and can be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum as it rises. Impurities that are left in the syrup will cloud it. Egg white coagulates as it heats and carries these particles up, so they must be removed by skimming while the syrup boils and before the final boil takes it to clear amber.
“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.