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Syrup of Capillaire

A clear syrup made from egg whites, sugar, water, isinglass, orange flower water, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,987 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Syrup of Capillaire

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a large pot, combine egg whites, loaf sugar, spring water, and isinglass.

  2. Heat the mixture until it is clear and cold.

  3. Add orange flower water and syrup of cloves to taste.

Bottle

  1. Pour the syrup into bottles and cork them tightly for storage.

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. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Orange + syruptop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,179 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Their proteins set when heated, trapping impurities so the syrup clears.
Loaf sugar
Provides the sweetness and body of the syrup.
Isinglass
A fining agent that helps bind impurities so the syrup turns clear.

The step that matters

Heating until clear. As the mixture heats, the egg white and isinglass proteins coagulate and gather impurities. Heating only until the syrup is clear, then letting it cool, keeps the result bright and stable.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, orange, syrup):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, orange, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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