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Dessert

Molasses Solferino

Molasses Solferino is a molasses candy made with glucose, butter, and lemon oil.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Molasses Solferino

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the base

  1. In a copper pan, combine 2 gallons of molasses, 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar, and 3 pounds of glucose.

  2. Set the pan over medium heat and stir until the mixture thickens.

  3. Add ½ pound of butter and continue cooking until it reaches the crack stage.

Shape and pull

  1. Pour the mixture onto a greased marble surface, folding in the edges as it cools.

  2. Add 1 teaspoon of oil of lemon and pull the mixture over a hook until it becomes light and spongy.

  3. Form the mixture into 1 or 2 round loaves, similar to bread, and break off pieces as needed.

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. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,640 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Cream and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,640 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the dark color, deep flavor and sweetness that define the candy.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and glossy rather than grainy.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that helps prevent sugar crystallization, giving a tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer bite in the finished candy.

The step that matters

Cooking to the crack stage. Sugar syrup must reach the correct temperature to set firm yet not brittle. Under-cooking leaves it sticky, while over-cooking makes it hard and difficult to pull into a light, spongy texture.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, cream, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, cream, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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