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Dessert

Sugar Taffy

A chewy confection made by cooking sugar, glucose, cocoa butter, cream, butter, and water to 260°F, then pulling and cutting.

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

Sugar Taffy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the taffy base

  1. In a copper kettle, combine sugar, glucose, cocoa butter, cream, butter, and water.

  2. Set on the fire and stir, cooking until the mixture reaches 260°F (130°C).

Pull and shape

  1. Pour the mixture onto a greased slab and let it cool until manageable.

  2. Pull the taffy over a hook, adding vanilla flavoring while pulling.

  3. Once well pulled, lay it on the table and stretch into strips 6 to 8 feet long.

  4. Place an iron bar on each side of the strip and press together.

  5. Cut into bars to fit counter pans or break into small pieces.

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. Cocoa butter + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + cocoa buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together49 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Sugar
Provides the main sweetness and the bulk of the candy's structure as it sets.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the taffy smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer, richer bite and smoother mouthfeel.
Cream
Adds milk fats and solids for a softer texture and mellower flavor.
Cocoa butter
Adds fat that gives a smooth texture and rich flavor to the taffy.

The step that matters

Cooking to 260°F (130°C). The final temperature sets the water content and therefore the firmness of the taffy. Too low gives a sticky, soft candy that will not hold its shape; too high gives a hard, brittle result.

“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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