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
Combine the sugar and spring water in a clean block-tin pan or an earthenware-lined pan.
Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Clarify and cook
Place the pan over moderate heat and add the beaten egg white before the mixture warms.
Once boiling, remove the scum and keep boiling until the syrup is perfectly clear.
Strain and store
Strain the syrup through muslin and let it cool.
Bottle the syrup; if well corked, it will keep for several months.
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
- Broken loaf sugar
- Forms the syrup itself, providing all of the sweetness and body.
- Beaten egg white
- Coagulates as it heats, trapping impurities so they can be skimmed off, leaving the syrup clear.
The step that matters
Removing the scum while boiling. The egg white coagulates and rises with impurities as the syrup boils. Skimming it off thoroughly while boiling keeps the syrup clear; leftover scum would cloud it and can spoil the syrup over time.
“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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