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 ↓
Celery Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sugar
Boil the sugar in a little water.
Add the cream of tartar to the caramel.
Pour the mixture onto an oiled marble slab.
Shape
Turn the edges of the sugar over to the center.
Pull and draw the sugar between your fingers until it sets and is nearly cold.
Shape it to resemble a head of celery.
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 + 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
- Loaf sugar
- Forms the base of the candy, which hardens into a brittle, glassy sugar when cooled.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the sugar syrup, helping prevent crystallization so the candy stays smooth.
The step that matters
Pull and draw the sugar until it sets. The sugar must be worked while it cools, before it hardens completely. Pulling aerates and stretches it, giving the pale, fibrous texture. Working it too late leaves it brittle and hard to shape.
“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
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.