Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Nonpareils
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare a large shallow pan with hot coals underneath.
Pound the orris-root in a mortar, then sift it into the pan.
Form the paste and grains
Mix a small quantity of syrup with the orris-root powder to form a thick paste.
Roll the paste into small grains or tiny balls.
Coat and finish
Gradually charge the balls with syrup until a sugar coating forms.
Use sieves of various sizes to sift and remove sugar dust and imperfect comfits.
Dry the Nonpareils in the stove after completing the syrup charges.
Repeat the charging process over the next few days as needed.
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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Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 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
- Florence orris-root
- Provides the flavour base and bulk for the paste that forms each grain.
- Syrup boiled to the pearl stage
- Binds the powder into a paste and builds the hard sugar coating in layers.
- Sugar
- Forms the outer sugar coating that gives each Nonpareil its crisp, sparkling shell.
The step that matters
Gradually charging the balls with syrup. Adding syrup in many thin layers lets each coat dry and harden before the next. Adding too much at once makes the grains merge or stay soft and sticky.
“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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