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To Clarify Sugar

A method for clarifying broken sugar using egg white and water, then straining it for use.

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

To Clarify Sugar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a large stewpan, whisk the egg white.

  2. Add water to the stewpan until it is half full and frothy.

Make the syrup

  1. Add the broken sugar and stir over heat until completely dissolved.

  2. Remove the spoon and let the mixture boil.

  3. Skim off any scum that forms, leaving the egg white in the pan.

Strain

  1. Once clear, strain through a silk sieve or jelly bag for use.

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. Egg + sugartop 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

Egg white
Its proteins coagulate when heated, trapping impurities so they can be skimmed off.
Broken sugar
Forms the syrup itself; it is the material being purified.

The step that matters

Skimming off the scum. Impurities rise to the surface as the egg white coagulates. Removing them as they form keeps the syrup clear; leaving them to recirculate or skimming too late leaves cloudiness.

“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.