Why it works: Molasses and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,123 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Molasses Kisses No. 1
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
Place molasses in a copper kettle.
Add glucose, tartaric acid, butter, and paraffin substitute.
Cook over medium heat until it reaches the hard ball stage.
Pour onto an oiled marble surface.
Pull and finish
When cool enough to handle, fold the mixture together repeatedly until ready to pull.
Throw onto a hook and add flavor, pulling until cold and spongy.
Form into round batches on a cool slab, pull to desired thickness, cut, and wrap.
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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Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,123 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Provides the main dark flavor and sweetness of the candy.
- Glucose
- Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
- Tartaric acid
- Acidity that helps prevent sugar crystallization and softens the candy's texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a softer, more tender bite.
- Paraffin substitute
- Adds body and helps the pulled candy hold its glossy, chewy texture.
The step that matters
Cook to the hard ball stage. Cooking too little leaves the candy soft and sticky, while cooking too far makes it brittle. Hard ball stage sets the sugar concentration needed for the pulled texture to form correctly.
“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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