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Dessert

Popcorn Balls

Popcorn balls are sweet, sticky treats made by coating popped popcorn with a molasses and brown sugar glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Popcorn Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, and butter in a large kettle. Cook until the mixture reaches a soft ball stage.

Assemble and shape

  1. Pop the popcorn until you have 4 quarts. Salt to taste.

  2. Pour the cooked mixture over the popcorn and mix well.

  3. Shape the mixture into balls while still warm.

  4. Allow the balls to cool before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Molasses
Provides dark sweetness and a chewy body that binds the popcorn together.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cooked syrup set firm as it cools.
Vinegar
Adds a little acidity that keeps the syrup from turning grainy as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer bite and a richer flavor in the coating.

The step that matters

Cook the syrup to soft ball stage. Cooking to the soft ball stage sets the right amount of water out of the syrup. Undercooked syrup stays sticky and will not hold the balls, while overcooked syrup turns hard and brittle once cool.

“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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