Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
On Spinning Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Boil sugar until it reaches the caramel stage.
Remove from heat and dip the bottom of the pan in cold water to cool slightly.
Dip a tablespoon in the sugar and run it over the oiled mould to create designs.
Carefully loosen the sugar from the mould and let it cool completely.
If the sugar hardens too much, warm it by the fire to soften.
Shape handles on a marble slab.
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 + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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