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To Clarify Sugar

A clear syrup made by dissolving sugar in water and removing impurities.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

To Clarify Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a clean preserving pan, combine sugar and water.

  2. Add the white of an egg and mix until nearly dissolved.

  3. Let the mixture stand until the sugar is fully dissolved.

Clarify

  1. Bring to a boil without stirring for five minutes.

  2. Skim off the scum that forms on top.

  3. Add a little reserved cold water and repeat skimming until the syrup is clear.

  4. Strain the syrup through muslin or a thin cloth into a clean pan for further boiling.

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

Sugar
Forms the syrup base and provides sweetness and body.
Egg white
Its proteins coagulate when heated, trapping impurities so they can be skimmed off.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum while the syrup boils. The egg white rises with impurities as it coagulates. Removing this scum as it forms keeps the syrup clear. Skimming only once or late may leave cloudiness in the finished syrup.

“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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