Why it works: Sugar and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,168 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Jied and White Corn Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar with water until it reaches a soft ball stage.
Form the balls
Stir the syrup into the corn until well mixed.
If desired, add a few drops of food coloring to the corn and mix with your hands.
Set the corn mixture into a ball and press it firmly between your hands.
Allow the balls to harden before serving.
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 + corntop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White sugar
- Dissolves into a syrup that cools and hardens, binding the corn into a firm ball.
- Corn
- Forms the bulk of each ball, held together by the cooled sugar syrup.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar with water until it reaches a soft ball stage.. The syrup's final temperature controls its texture once cooled. Stopping too early leaves the balls sticky and loose, while cooking too far makes them hard and brittle.
“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
Corn Cake90 recipes
Corn Starch Cake89 recipes
Corn Cakes22 recipes
Green Corn Pudding14 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.