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Dessert

Malt Drops

A sweet confection made by cooking sugar with cream of tartar or glucose, adding malt extract, and forming drops.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Malt Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a large pot, combine the sugar and cream of tartar (or glucose).

  2. Cook over medium heat until the sugar reaches 380°F (190°C) or begins to turn.

Add the malt and shape

  1. Slowly add the warmed malt extract, stirring continuously.

  2. Continue stirring until the mixture is ready to pour onto a slab.

  3. Be careful not to let it scorch or burn, as this will ruin the flavor.

  4. Run the mixture through a drop machine to form desired shapes.

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. Sugar + malttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together325 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream + malttop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together85 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 hard, glassy candy base and provides sweetness.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the sugar, helping prevent crystallization for a smoother candy.
Glucose
Replaces cream of tartar, inhibiting sugar crystals for a smooth, glassy texture.
Malt extract
Adds malty flavor and sweetness, and some extra moisture to the syrup.

The step that matters

Avoid scorching the mixture. Sugar darkens and turns bitter once it overheats, and scorched sugar gives a burnt flavor that ruins the candy. Stirring and watching the temperature helps prevent this.

“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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