Why it works: Sugar and cottonseed work together. They rank in the top 31% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Jelly Gum Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gum
Soak 10 lbs of gum arabic overnight in 5 gallons of water.
Cook the mixture
In a steam kettle, combine the soaked gum, 100 lbs of sugar, 6 gallons of water, and 30 lbs of glucose.
Cook slowly until the mixture runs off the stick in a thick mass.
Flavor the mixture, then pour it into starch.
Dry and finish
Let it dry in a cool room for 72 hours.
Remove from starch and polish with cottonseed oil or crystallize as desired.
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 + cottonseedtop 31% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gum arabic
- Forms the gel structure that gives the gum drops their chewy texture.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and bulk, and helps the candy set firm as it dries.
- Glucose
- Limits sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
- Starch
- Coats the wet pieces so they dry without sticking together.
The step that matters
Cook slowly until the mixture runs off the stick in a thick mass. Cooking to the right concentration sets how firm the gum drops will be once dried. Too little cooking leaves the candy soft and sticky, while 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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.