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Dessert

Popcorn Brittle

A sweet brittle made from popcorn, sugar, glucose, butter, molasses, and salt.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook the syrup

  1. Grind the popcorn finely and set aside.

  2. In a pot, cook the brown sugar, glucose, and enough water to dissolve until it reaches 290°F (143°C).

  3. Add the butter, salt, and dark molasses, then cook until it reaches 300°F (149°C).

Shape and set

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the ground popcorn.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a slab and roll it out as thin as possible.

  3. Once cooled, break into pieces like brittle.

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. Butter + molassestop 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

Popcorn
Provides the crunchy, airy texture that gives the brittle its bite.
Brown sugar
Forms the main sugar base that sets hard and adds sweetness.
Glucose
Helps prevent the sugar from crystallizing, keeping the brittle smooth and glassy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender bite.
Dark molasses
Adds deep flavor, color, and extra sweetness.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 300°F (149°C). The syrup must reach the target temperature so that little water remains. Undercooked syrup stays soft and sticky after cooling, while overcooking makes it bitter and dark.

“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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