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Dessert

Old-fashioned Molasses Candy

Molasses candy made from molasses, coffee sugar, and cream of tartar, cooked until brittle and cooled before breaking into pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Old-fashioned Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Combine molasses, coffee sugar, and cream of tartar in a saucepan.

  2. Cook steadily over medium heat until the mixture becomes brittle when tested in cold water.

Cool and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered pans to cool.

  2. Once cooled, break into pieces and enjoy.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

  5. Molasses + coffeetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together640 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

New orleans molasses
Provides the main body, deep flavor, and dark color of the candy.
Coffee sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the candy set firm as the mixture cooks down.
Cream of tartar
Acidity that helps prevent sugar from crystallizing, keeping the candy smooth.

The step that matters

Cooking until brittle in cold water. Cooking to the right stage determines the final texture. Too little cooking leaves the candy sticky, while too much makes it hard or bitter. Testing in cold water shows when enough moisture has boiled off for the candy to set brittle.

“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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