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Dessert

Old Style Molasses Taffy

A chewy candy made by cooking sugar, glucose, cream, molasses, and butter to 250°F and pulling into taffy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Old Style Molasses Taffy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the taffy

  1. In a large pot, combine sugar, glucose, cream, molasses, and butter.

  2. Cook the mixture over medium heat until it reaches 250°F (120°C).

  3. Pour the hot mixture onto a slab and let it cool.

Pull and finish

  1. Once cool, pull the taffy until it becomes light in color and cut it into two parts.

  2. Place the pieces in a paper-lined pan and allow them to cool completely.

  3. Remove the paper and break the taffy into pieces for sale.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + molassestop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 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

Sugar
Provides the bulk of the sweetness and the structure that sets as the candy cools.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the taffy smooth and pliable rather than grainy.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the taffy a softer, creamier bite.
New orleans molasses
Adds deep flavour and color, and some acidity that contributes to the taffy's character.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture that softens the chew.

The step that matters

Cooking to 250°F (120°C). Cooking to this temperature controls how much water boils off and sets the sugar concentration. Undercooking leaves the taffy sticky and soft; overcooking makes it 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.

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