Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓
Maple Cream Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
Boil the cream and maple sugar together in a saucepan.
When a few drops of the syrup dropped into cold water harden, remove from heat.
Beat the mixture with a fork until it reaches the consistency of thick cream.
Set and mark
Pour into buttered tins and mark into squares when cool.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Cream + sugartop 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
- Thick sweet cream
- Adds fat and moisture, giving the candy a smooth, creamy texture.
- Maple sugar
- Provides the sweetness and maple flavor, and dissolves into the cream to form the syrup.
The step that matters
Removing the syrup from heat at the cold-water test. Sugar syrup hardens into a firm candy as its concentration rises. Removing it when a drop hardens in cold water gives the right firmness. Going further makes the candy too hard, while stopping early leaves it soft and unable to set.
“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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