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 ↓
Rock Candy
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the syrup
In a large pot, combine the sugar, water, and cream of tartar.
Cook the mixture until it reaches 400°F (200°C) using a crystal gauge.
Pour the hot mixture into a rock candy pan.
Set the crystals
Allow it to set in a dry room or a warm place for 36 hours without disturbance.
After 36 hours, light a match and hold it over the top to check if the string is the desired size.
Drain off the syrup and let it set overnight.
Once set, cut out the strings.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Confectioners' sugar
- Forms the syrup and then the crystals that grow into the candy.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked into a syrup.
- Cream of tartar
- An acid that slightly breaks down sugar, helping prevent premature crystallization.
The step that matters
Let it set without disturbance. Sugar crystals form slowly on the string only while the cooled syrup stays still. Stirring or moving the pan can trigger uneven, cloudy or sudden crystallization.
“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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