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 ↓
Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Combine 6 pounds of sugar with 5 pints of cold spring water in a preserving pan.
Lightly beat the egg white and add it to the mixture, stirring to combine.
Set the pan over gentle heat and allow the sugar to dissolve, letting the scum rise undisturbed.
After boiling for 5 minutes, remove from heat and let it sit for a couple of minutes before skimming off the scum.
Boil again, then add ½ cup of cold water to bring remaining scum to the surface and skim until clear.
Strain the syrup through a thin cloth; it is ready for use.
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
- White sugar
- Dissolves into the water to form the syrup, providing sweetness and body.
- Egg white
- Coagulates when heated, trapping impurities so they rise as scum that can be skimmed off.
The step that matters
Skimming the scum while the syrup boils. Impurities rise to the surface as scum. If the syrup is stirred or skimmed too early, the scum breaks up and mixes back in, leaving the syrup cloudy. Letting the scum rise undisturbed, then skimming it after a rest, keeps the syrup 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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