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Dessert

Butter Cups

A candy made from sugar, molasses, butter, and vanilla cream, rolled into a sheet and cut into sticks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Butter Cups

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the sugar

  1. Combine sugar and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add molasses and cream of tartar.

  4. Cook until the mixture reaches 310°F (154°C).

  5. Stir in the butter until fully dissolved.

  6. Pour the mixture onto a greased slab.

Prepare the cream

  1. Work the vanilla cream until smooth.

  2. Warm the vanilla cream over a heater, turning continuously.

Shape the candy

  1. Once the sugar mixture is cool enough to handle, spread it into a sheet about 1 inch thick and 12‑14 inches wide.

  2. Place the warm vanilla cream in a roll at the center of the sugar sheet.

  3. Fold the sugar over the cream, meeting the edges.

  4. Roll the candy before the heater until it is warm enough to work.

  5. Spin out into stick candy.

  6. Mark the sticks with a caramel marker.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the main candy structure and provides most of the sweetness as it sets.
New orleans molasses
Adds deeper flavor, color, and some moisture to the sugar mixture.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent unwanted sugar crystallization for a smoother texture.
Sweet butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender bite.
Vanilla cream
Forms the soft filling enclosed in the sugar, adding flavor and contrast in texture.

The step that matters

Cooking to 310°F (154°C). Final sugar temperature determines the candy's hardness after cooling. Undercooking leaves it sticky and soft, while overcooking makes it brittle and prone to burning.

“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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