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 ↓
Candy of Any Flavor
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the syrup
In a large kettle, mix the sugar, water, and cream of tartar.
Boil over a brisk fire, ensuring it does not burn by applying heat to the bottom.
After 15 minutes, remove a small portion with a spoon and cool it in a saucer set in ice water.
When cool, check if it 'threads' when separated between your thumb and finger.
Test frequently by dropping a bit into cold water; it is done when hard and brittle.
Flavor and shape
Remove from heat and stir in your desired flavoring.
Pour into lightly greased shallow earthen dishes and cool until manageable.
Pull and roll into sticks or any desired shape.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 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
- Refined sugar
- Provides the sweetness and forms the crystalline body of the candy as it cooks and sets.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into an even syrup before concentrating.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidity that helps prevent the sugar from recrystallizing, keeping the candy smooth.
The step that matters
Testing for doneness in cold water. Sugar syrup keeps darkening and hardening quickly near the end of cooking, so testing frequently in cold water catches the hard, brittle stage before the candy overcooks and burns.
“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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