Skip to main content
Dessert

Candy Making

A method for making sugar or molasses candy by boiling sugar, water, and molasses, then cooling and shaping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Candy Making

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sugar syrup

  1. Combine 1½ pints of water with 3½ pounds of sugar in a marbleized saucepan.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes.

  3. Test by dropping syrup into a bowl of water.

  4. When it forms a soft ball, remove from heat.

  5. If it is too hard, add water and boil again.

  6. Add a pinch of cream of tartar to prevent crystallization.

Make the molasses candy

  1. For molasses candy, mix 1 quart of molasses with 1 pound of white sugar.

  2. Boil until it snaps in water.

  3. Add 1 teaspoon of vinegar and a pinch of baking soda. Stir well.

  4. Pour into greased platters.

  5. Use a knife to keep edges turned in for even cooling.

Cool and shape

  1. Let cool until you can touch it.

  2. Pull into sticks or a solid mass.

  3. Cool.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cream + molassestop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + vinegartop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,064 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves into water to form the syrup that sets into candy and gives sweetness.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor, color and chewiness to the candy.
Cream of tartar
Acid that helps prevent sugar from crystallizing into grainy texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the mixture to add lightness as it sets.

The step that matters

Testing the syrup stage by dropping it into water. Sugar syrup sets according to its temperature and concentration. Removing it too early leaves candy soft, while boiling too long makes it hard or brittle, so testing in cold water shows when it has reached the right stage.

“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.

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipes