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 ↓
Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare a swab by wrapping a 2‑inch wide strip of cheesecloth around a small paddle.
Have a wooden spoon, a large platter, and a clean copper kettle ready.
In the kettle, combine 2 ½ lbs granulated sugar, ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1 ½ pints water.
Make the syrup
Alternatively, use 2 cups white sugar, 1 cup water, and a pinch of cream of tartar, or 2 lbs white sugar, 5 ozs glucose, and 10 ozs water.
Stir briefly with a wooden spoon, then place on the fire and bring to a boil without stirring.
Skim the surface as needed and wash down any sugar crystals on the kettle sides with the swab dipped in cold water.
Boil for 5 minutes, then test the syrup by dipping a fork into it.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the syrup that sets into the candy once it is boiled and cooled.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that helps keep the sugar from recrystallizing into grainy crystals.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into a clear syrup.
The step that matters
Washing down sugar crystals on the kettle sides. Stray sugar crystals on the pan walls can fall into the boiling syrup and seed unwanted crystallization, making the fondant grainy. Washing them down with a cold-water swab prevents 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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