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Dessert

Butter Cups

A confection of cream, sugar, nuts, and optional butter, vanilla, molasses, or figs, formed into cups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 324 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Butter Cups

Ingredients

Directions

Make the outer candy

  1. Heat 4 pounds of cream until warm.

  2. Add 10 pounds of sugar and 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar.

  3. Work in the nuts.

  4. Cook until the sugar reaches 330°F (165°C).

  5. Pour out the mixture and let it cool slightly.

  6. Pull it until it has a white satin appearance.

Make the center

  1. Cook 2 pounds of sugar and 3 pounds of glucose to a hard ball.

  2. Optionally, add ¼ pound of sweet butter and 1 vanilla bean while cooking.

  3. Mix in 1.5 pounds of chopped hickory nuts.

  4. Cook 1 gallon of New Orleans molasses to a hard ball.

  5. Mix in chopped nuts.

  6. Grate fresh figs.

  7. Mix with powdered sugar to form a smooth paste.

Shape and fill

  1. Shape the mixture into Butter Cups.

  2. Place cream in the center.

  3. Fold the edges over.

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. Vanilla + figtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together324 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Nuts + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together638 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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

Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the candy a soft, tender body.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and forms the crystalline structure of the candy when cooked.
Cream of tartar
Acidity that helps prevent sugar from crystallizing too coarsely, keeping the candy smooth.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystallization, keeping the center smooth and pliable.
Hickory nuts
Add crunch and nutty flavor to the candy.

The step that matters

Cook until the sugar reaches 330°F (165°C). Sugar syrup must reach the right temperature to set to the intended firmness. Too little cooking leaves the candy soft, and too much makes it hard or brittle.

“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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