Skip to main content
Dessert

Popcorn Crisp

A sweet, brittle popcorn coating made from sugar, glucose, molasses, butter, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and molasses 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 Crisp

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 280°F (138°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, glucose, and water. Cook to 280°F (138°C).

  2. Remove the thermometer and stir in molasses, butter, and salt. Cook until very brittle when dropped in water.

Coat and set

  1. Ensure corn is free from small hard grains before pouring syrup.

  2. Remove from heat and pour syrup over popped corn, stirring constantly to coat evenly.

  3. Scoop out of the pan and spread on a slab to prevent packing.

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 + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

  5. Molasses + corntop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together644 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the crisp, brittle structure as the syrup cools and hardens.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the syrup smooth and preventing grainy sugar.
Dark molasses
Adds flavour and colour, and contributes to the brittle texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer bite to the coating.

The step that matters

Cook the syrup to the brittle stage. Syrup that is undercooked stays sticky and will not set crisp, while overcooked syrup turns bitter and can burn. Cooking to the stated temperature and checking for brittleness in cold water controls the final texture.

“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.

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipes