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Dessert

Chop Suey Chocolates

A chocolate candy made with sugar, mincemeat, and brandy, formed into balls and dipped in bitter sweet chocolate.

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 ↓

Chop Suey Chocolates

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy base

  1. In a large pot, combine sugar, ground mincemeat, cream of tartar, and water.

  2. Cook the mixture until it reaches 242°F (117°C).

  3. Pour the mixture onto a damp slab.

Cream and shape

  1. Add glucose and begin to cream the mixture until nearly done.

  2. Stir in brandy and finish creaming.

  3. Roll the mixture into small balls.

  4. Dip the balls in melted bitter sweet chocolate.

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 + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Brandy + chocolatetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together287 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the bulk of the candy and provides sweetness, setting firm as it cools.
Ground mincemeat
Adds fruit and spice flavour and moisture to the centres.
Cream of tartar
An acid that helps keep the sugar smooth and stops it crystallising too hard.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystal growth, keeping the creamed mixture soft and smooth.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the centres.
Bitter sweet chocolate
Forms a bitter outer coating that contrasts with the sweet centre.

The step that matters

Cooking to 242°F (117°C). The final sugar concentration determines how the centres set once cooled. Stopping early leaves the balls too soft to roll, while cooking too far makes them 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.

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