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Dessert

Popcorn Crisp

A sweet candy made by cooking sugar, glucose, water, salt, molasses, butter, and popcorn, then cooling and cutting into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Popcorn Crisp

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, glucose, water, and salt in a large pot.

  2. Cook over medium heat until it reaches 290°F (143°C).

  3. Add molasses and butter.

  4. Continue cooking until it reaches 300°F (149°C).

  5. Remove from heat.

Mix and shape

  1. Stir in popcorn and baking soda until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a slab.

  3. Roll it out evenly.

  4. Cut into 6-inch squares while still warm.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 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 sweetness and, when cooked, the brittle crisp structure of the candy.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and preventing grainy texture.
New orleans molasses
Adds deep flavor, color, and moisture that contributes to a chewy-crisp texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender bite in the finished candy.
Popcorn
Forms the bulk of the confection, held together by the cooked syrup.
Baking soda
Reacts with the hot syrup to aerate it, lightening the texture and aiding browning.

The step that matters

Stop cooking at the target temperatures. Sugar syrup must reach the stated temperatures to set into a brittle, crisp candy. Undercooking leaves it sticky, while overcooking can scorch the sugars and taste bitter.

“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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