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 ↓
Clarified Syrup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the syrup
Break the sugar into bits and place it in a clean, well-tinned stew-pan with the cold spring water.
Dissolve the sugar and set it over moderate heat.
Beat the egg white and add it to the sugar before it warms up, stirring well.
Clarify and store
Watch for boiling and remove any scum that forms.
Continue boiling until no scum rises and the syrup is perfectly clear.
Strain the syrup through a clean napkin and store it in a tightly sealed bottle.
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
- Double refined sugar
- Provides sweetness and forms the body of the syrup.
- Egg white
- Binds impurities as it cooks, so scum rises to the surface for removal.
The step that matters
Removing scum while boiling. Impurities in the sugar rise as scum when the syrup boils. Skimming them off as they form keeps the syrup clear; leaving them to cook back into the liquid makes it 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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