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 Imitate Chestnuts. a French Sweetmeat.
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Clarify the sugar by boiling it in water until thick.
Test the thickness by dipping a spoonful onto a plate; it should stick like hardbake.
Remove from heat and work with a silver spoon until it resembles a preserve.
Form the sweetmeat
Beat the yolks of the eggs and add maraschino, mixing well with the sugar to form a stiff paste.
Turn the mixture onto a marble surface dusted with powdered sugar.
Roll into small balls the size of chestnuts, creating dents to mimic the shape.
Heat a piece of iron wire until red hot and draw it across the chestnuts to imitate roasted nuts.
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 + eggtop 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
- Lump sugar
- Forms the thick syrup that sets into the sweetmeat's body and sweetness.
- Egg yolks
- Bind the cooked sugar into a stiff paste and add richness.
- Maraschino
- Adds aroma and a liqueur flavour to the paste.
The step that matters
Cooking the sugar to the right thickness. Sugar must be boiled until it is thick enough to hold its shape when cooled. Undercooked syrup stays sticky and will not form a firm paste, while overcooked sugar becomes hard and brittle and will not bind with the yolks.
“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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