Name: Popcorn Balls
Ingredients: corn (amount as desired); 6 lbs sugar; 4 lbs glucose; 2 quarts water; 1 quart molasses (optional); ¼ lb butter (optional); pink food coloring (optional)

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 Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the corn

Pop the desired amount of corn.
Dampen the inside of a washtub with a wet cloth and pour the popped corn into it.

Make the syrup

In a pot, combine sugar, glucose, and water, and cook to 238°F (114°C).
Set the syrup aside.

Coat and shape

Pour a little of the syrup over the corn while stirring until sticky.
Wet your hands.
Form the sticky corn into balls of your preferred size.

Optional variations

For molasses corn balls, add molasses and butter to the syrup, and cook the syrup with molasses and butter to 238°F (114°C).
To make pink corn balls, add pink food coloring to the syrup after cooking.

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.

Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,345 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together7,168 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Corn + molassestop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together644 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

Corn: Forms the bulk of the ball and provides the crisp, airy structure.
Sugar: Forms the syrup that hardens as it cools, binding the popped corn together.
Glucose: Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the syrup smooth and the balls from turning grainy.
Molasses: Adds deeper flavour and colour and some extra moisture to the syrup.
Butter: Adds fat for richer flavour and a softer bite in the molasses version.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 238°F (114°C). Syrup taken to this temperature has a set concentration of sugar. Undercooked syrup stays sticky and will not hold the balls, while overcooked syrup sets hard and brittle. Careful temperature control decides the final texture.

“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.