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Dessert

Strawberry Rock

A candy made by cooking sugar and strawberry juice into a hard, pink rock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Strawberry Rock

Ingredients

Directions

Make the first batch

  1. Combine 12 lbs sugar, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 2 quarts water in a large pot.

  2. Cook until the mixture reaches 320°F (160°C).

  3. Add strawberry juice until the temperature lowers to 256°F (125°C).

  4. Pour the mixture onto a slab and pull it on a hook, then set aside for the center.

Make the outer layer

  1. In another pot, cook 4 lbs sugar, 1 pint water, and a small pinch of cream of tartar to 320°F (160°C).

  2. Pour this mixture onto a slab, color it a delicate pink, and pull it on a hook to form around the first batch.

Finish

  1. Once cooled, chop into small pieces.

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

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

  2. Cream + strawberrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,525 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + strawberrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,060 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the crystalline candy structure as it cooks and hardens into glassy rock candy.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked to a syrup before pulling.
Cream of tartar
Acid that helps prevent large sugar crystals from forming, keeping the candy smooth.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 320°F (160°C). Sugar syrup must reach the correct temperature to set into a firm, glassy candy. Too low a temperature leaves it sticky, while overcooking can make it brittle or burnt.

Swap the strawberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberrythe original
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Raisinfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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