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Dessert

Old Fashioned Molasses Candy

Molasses candy made by boiling molasses, sugar, butter, and glycerine, then setting with cream of tartar and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Old Fashioned Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Combine molasses, sugar, butter, and glycerine in a saucepan.

  2. Boil over medium-high heat for about 20 minutes.

  3. Test by dropping a few drops into ice-cold water; if they hold shape, it is ready.

  4. Before removing from heat, stir in cream of tartar and vanilla.

Prepare and set

  1. Prepare a well-buttered platter.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Walnut + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the main body, dark color, and deep flavor of the candy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture thicken into a firm candy as it cooks.
Glycerine
Helps keep the candy soft and smooth by discouraging crystallization.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that helps prevent sugar from crystallizing, giving a smoother texture.

The step that matters

Testing the candy in cold water. Cooking sugar syrup to the right stage determines whether the candy sets firm or stays sticky. A drop that holds its shape in ice-cold water shows the syrup has reached the needed concentration, so testing before removing from heat matters.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, butter, cream, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, cream, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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