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Dessert

Pop Corn Balls

A sweet treat made by coating popped corn with a molasses and sugar mixture and shaping into balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 349 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pop Corn Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Salt the popped corn.

  2. In a saucepan, combine molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, and butter.

Cook the syrup

  1. Boil for 15 minutes.

  2. Add baking soda 5 minutes before removing from heat.

Shape the balls

  1. Pour the mixture over the corn and shape into balls.

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. Corn + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together349 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

  4. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Popped corn
Forms the bulk and crunchy structure that the syrup binds together.
New orleans molasses
Adds deep sweetness and flavour, and sets chewy as the syrup cools.
Light brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the balls hold together.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that softens the syrup's texture and reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid to release gas, lightening the syrup and making it tender.
Butter
Adds richness and a softer bite, and helps the syrup release from the hands.

The step that matters

Add baking soda 5 minutes before removing from heat. Baking soda reacts vigorously with the acid in the syrup, foaming it up. Adding it near the end of cooking lets the reaction lighten the syrup without overcooking it, so the balls stay tender. Shape the balls promptly while the mixture is still warm and workable.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (corn, molasses, sugar, vinegar, butter):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Peanutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against corn, molasses, sugar, vinegar, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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