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A New Method to Clarify Sugar

A syrup made by clarifying sugar with water, ivory black, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

A New Method to Clarify Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Break the sugar into pieces and place it in a pan with water.

  2. Beat the ivory black into the water and add the whipped egg whites.

Melt and clarify

  1. Melt the mixture over moderate heat without boiling.

  2. Occasionally add cold water to prevent boiling.

  3. Once dissolved, strain through a flannel bag until clear.

  4. Return the syrup to the bag as needed until it is as clear as spring water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Fine loaf sugar
Forms the syrup itself, providing sweetness and body once dissolved in the water.
Egg whites
Coagulate when heated and trap impurities, which then rise and can be strained out.
Ivory-black
Adsorbs colouring and impurities from the liquid so they can be removed by straining.

The step that matters

Melting without boiling. Boiling too early can cause the egg white to set and mix into the syrup before impurities are bound, making it harder to clarify. Adding cold water keeps the temperature low and controlled.

“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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