Skip to main content
Dessert

Butter Cups

A sugar candy made with molasses, butter, and vanilla cream, formed into sheets and rolled into sticks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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

Make the sugar base

  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 dissolved.

  6. Pour the mixture onto a greased slab.

  7. Let it cool slightly.

Prepare the vanilla cream

  1. Work the vanilla cream until smooth.

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

Shape and finish

  1. Once the sugar mixture is cool enough to handle, spread it into a sheet about 1 inch thick, 12–14 inches wide, and 16 inches long.

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

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

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

  5. Spin out the candy into stick shapes.

  6. Mark 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 sweet crystalline body of the candy once cooked and cooled.
Molasses
Adds deeper flavour and colour and contributes to a softer texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidity that helps prevent sugar from crystallising too early, keeping the candy smooth.
Sweet butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender, melting texture in the candy.
Vanilla cream
Forms the soft filling that is folded into the sugar sheet, adding flavour and contrast.

The step that matters

Cook until the mixture reaches 310°F (154°C). Cooking to the target temperature controls how much water boils off, which sets the final firmness. Undercooking leaves the candy soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and 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.

More butter cups recipes

Peanut 5 See all 5 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesMolasses Sponge CakeMolasses Sponge Cake9 recipes