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 the powder
Warm the orris-root in a pan over gentle heat.
Moisten the powder with the syrup and form small grains with your hands.
Build and sift the grains
Gradually increase the charges.
Sift the nonpareils to remove small particles and dust.
Dry and finish
At night, place the nonpareils in the stove to dry.
Increase their size daily with fine sugar.
Finish as described above.
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
- Forms the body of each grain and gives the comfit its distinctive aroma.
- Syrup
- Binds the powder together so it can be shaped into small grains.
- Fine sugar
- Builds up each grain in layers and adds a sweet, dry outer coating.
The step that matters
Moistening the powder with syrup. The syrup must be just enough to bind the powder into grains. Too little leaves the powder crumbly and unable to hold shape, while too much makes a sticky mass that clumps and resists drying.
“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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