Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓
Sugar. ( 940. Sucre Clarifie. — Clarified Sugar.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Beat the egg white in a bowl with water.
Mix the egg white with the sugar you plan to use.
Clarify the sugar
Heat the mixture over the fire, adding cold water occasionally until the sugar is clear.
Skim off any impurities that rise to the surface.
Remove from heat and strain through a fine sieve or cloth.
Use as needed.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg white
- Its proteins coagulate when heated, trapping impurities so they can be skimmed away and strained out.
- Sugar
- The sugar being purified; it becomes clear syrup once impurities are removed.
The step that matters
Skimming impurities as the mixture heats. Egg white proteins coagulate as the mixture heats and carry impurities to the surface in a foam. Skimming this off before it breaks down and sinks back in keeps the sugar clear.
“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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