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 ↓
White Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar, hot water, and cream of tartar in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves.
Once boiling, wash down the sides of the pan to remove sugar.
Increase heat and boil without stirring until it forms a soft ball in cold water.
Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Make the fondant
Stir vigorously until it creams and thickens.
When too thick to stir, knead with your hands until light and creamy.
Rest
Place in an earthen vessel, cover with a damp cloth, and let sit for 24 hours.
Keep the cloth damp to extend freshness.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the sweet crystalline base that sets into the fondant's smooth texture.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the syrup to help prevent sugar from recrystallizing into grainy crystals.
- Hot water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can form a smooth, evenly concentrated syrup.
The step that matters
Boil without stirring to a soft ball. Stirring during boiling can trigger premature crystallization, producing grainy fondant. Cooking to the soft-ball stage sets the sugar concentration that gives the fondant its texture once it is creamed.
“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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