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 ↓
Chocolate Chips
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the mixture
In a copper kettle, combine yellow sugar, molasses, and glucose (or cream of tartar).
Set the mixture on fire and cook until it reaches the crack stage.
If desired, add butter and mix well.
Shape and finish
Pour the mixture onto a greased slab and fold in the edges as it cools.
When cool enough to handle, pull a little on a hook and flatten it out.
Stretch the mixture as thin as possible while marking the desired length with a caramel cutter.
Once cold, break apart and coat with sweet chocolate coating.
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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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,466 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 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
- Yellow sugar
- Provides the main sweetness and the bulk of the sugar structure that sets as it cools.
- Molasses
- Adds depth, color, and moisture, and keeps the candy softer and chewier.
- Glucose
- Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the mixture smooth and preventing grainy texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a softer bite and richer flavor, and helps the candy stay tender.
The step that matters
Cook to the crack stage. Cooking the sugar to the right temperature sets how hard the candy becomes once cooled. Underheating leaves it soft and sticky, while overheating makes it brittle and prone to burning.
“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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