Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Clarified Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the syrup
Place sugar lumps into a preserving pan.
For syrup, add 6 cups of cold water per pound; for candying, add ⅓ cup per pound.
Beat the egg and mix it with the water.
Pour the egg-water mixture over the sugar.
When the sugar is nearly melted, stir well.
Place the pan over gentle heat.
Do not stir once the scum begins to rise.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and let it stand for 1–2 minutes.
Skim off the scum.
Return to heat.
Add a little cold water when boiling.
Skim again.
Repeat until the syrup is clear and ready for use.
Test and finish
Test for candying by taking a little sugar between your fingers; it should stretch.
For barley-sugar, add essence of lemon.
Pour onto a dish.
Roll into sticks when edges harden.
For caramel, oil a mold.
Draw sugar into threads.
Let cool.
Cover your dessert.
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 + syruptop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + barleytop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together484 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Syrup + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,235 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Sugar
- Forms the body of the syrup and sets into clear, hard candy as it cools.
- Egg
- Its proteins coagulate with heat and trap impurities, which rise as scum for skimming.
The step that matters
Do not stir once the scum begins to rise. Stirring breaks up the forming scum layer and mixes impurities back into the syrup, leaving it cloudy instead of clear.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup, egg, barley):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup, egg, barley. 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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