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 for Water Ices
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine water, sugar, and whipped egg white in a pot.
Mix well and bring to a boil.
Boil for 7 to 8 minutes, skimming off any scum.
Cool and finish
Allow the syrup to cool before adding fruit juices.
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
- Granulated sugar
- Dissolves into the water to make a sweet syrup that sets the texture of the ice.
- Whipped egg white
- Helps gather impurities that rise as scum, which can then be skimmed off to clarify the syrup.
The step that matters
Cool the syrup before adding fruit juices. Fresh juices are delicate and can lose bright flavor when exposed to heat. Cooling the syrup first also keeps the juice from partly cooking and helps the mixture chill evenly for freezing.
“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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