Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Acid Drops and Sticks
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sugar
Boil clarified sugar until it reaches the crack stage.
Pour the sugar onto an oiled marble surface.
Add the acid
Pound tartaric or citric acid to a fine powder.
Strew the acid over the sugar according to its quality.
Fold the edges of the sugar into the middle to mix in the acid without pulling it.
Place the mixture in a greased tin and keep it warm under the stove.
Shape and store
Cut off small pieces and roll them into round pipes.
Cut the pipes into small drop-sized pieces with shears.
Have an assistant roll them under their hand and flatten them.
Mix the drops with powdered sugar, sift them, and store in boxes or glasses.
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 + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Clarified sugar
- Forms the glassy candy base that sets hard as it cools.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds a sharp, sour tang that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
- Citric acid
- Adds a sour, tart flavour to the candy and is used in place of or with tartaric acid.
The step that matters
Folding the acid into the sugar. Sugar must be folded rather than pulled so the acid is evenly distributed without cooling and clouding the mass or making it crystallise. Uneven acid gives patches that are too sour or soft, so the candy's texture and flavour turn out inconsistent.
“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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