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Dessert

Popcorn Brittle

A sweet brittle made with popcorn, sugar, glucose, butter, salt, and molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Brittle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grind the popcorn until fine and set aside.

Make the brittle

  1. In a pot, cook the brown sugar, glucose, and enough water to dissolve the sugar until it reaches 290°F (143°C).

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

  3. Remove from heat and stir in the ground popcorn until well combined.

  4. Pour the mixture onto a slab and roll it out as thin as possible.

  5. Once cooled, break into pieces like brittle.

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. Butter + molassestop 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

Brown sugar
Provides the bulk of the sweetness and the caramel flavour as it cooks.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallisation, keeping the brittle smooth and glassy rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender bite in the cooked sugar.
Dark molasses
Adds deeper colour, moisture and a robust caramel-like aroma.
Popcorn
Ground fine and stirred in, it adds a toasted corn flavour and crisp texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar to 300°F (149°C). The final temperature sets the brittle's hardness once cooled. Undercooked sugar stays sticky and soft, while overcooked sugar turns bitter and dark, so use a thermometer and watch the reading closely.

“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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