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Dessert

Popcorn Crisp

A sweet and salty popcorn snack coated with sugar, glucose, molasses, and butter, then baked and cut into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Crisp

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the syrup

  1. In a large pot, combine sugar, glucose, water, paraffin, and salt. Cook over medium heat until it reaches 290°F (143°C).

  2. Add the New Orleans molasses and butter, then continue cooking until it reaches 300°F (149°C).

Mix and shape

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the popcorn and baking soda until well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a slab and roll it out evenly.

  3. Cut into 6-inch squares while still warm.

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. Molasses + buttertop 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

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when cooked hot, sets the coating into a hard, brittle glass.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystals so the coating stays smooth rather than grainy.
New orleans molasses
Adds depth of flavour, dark colour and a slightly acidic note.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to release gas, lightening the coating so it breaks crisply.
Popcorn
Forms the bulk of the confection, giving it its light, crunchy body.

The step that matters

Stirring in the baking soda. Baking soda reacts vigorously with the hot, acidic syrup and foams it up. Stir it in off the heat and mix quickly so the reaction is even and every piece of popcorn is coated before the syrup sets.

“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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