Name: Raspberry Candy
Ingredients: raw or refined sugar; cochineal (for coloring); a little oil or butter (for greasing); a little tartaric acid; raspberry paste (to flavor)

Why it works: Butter and raspberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,308 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Raspberry Candy

Ingredients

raw or refined sugar
cochineal (for coloring)
a little oil or butter (for greasing)
a little tartaric acid
raspberry paste (to flavor)

Directions

Boil sugar until it reaches the crack stage.
Color the sugar with cochineal.
Pour the mixture onto a greased stone.
Cut off a small piece and keep it warm for later use.
Add tartaric acid and raspberry paste to the remaining sugar mixture.
Fold the edges of the candy into the center and attach it to a hook.
Pull the candy towards you, throwing it on the hook each time.
Continue until the candy becomes white and shiny.
Form it into a long roll and either stripe it with the reserved piece or roll it out flat.
Cut the rolled candy into long, narrow sticks of the desired length.

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.

Butter + raspberrytop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,308 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + raspberrytop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,101 recipes

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