Name: How to Pull Taffy on a Hook
Ingredients: taffy base (sugar, corn syrup, water, flavoring); corn starch for dusting

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

How to Pull Taffy on a Hook

Ingredients

taffy base (sugar, corn syrup, water, flavoring)
corn starch for dusting

Directions

Cool the taffy base until it forms a ball on a slab.
Lay the ball on a hook and pull it down with both hands.
Grab the end with one hand and hold the batch two-thirds up toward the hook with the other.
Quickly throw the part between your hands over the hook.
Pull the batch down again and repeat until it is very white.
Add flavoring when the taffy is half pulled.
Dust your hands with corn starch frequently to prevent sticking.
Wrap the taffy in wax paper for storage.

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.

Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Corn + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,678 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,168 recipes

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