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Dessert

Molasses Chips

Molasses chips are a sweet treat made by cooking sugar, molasses, and butter, then shaping into ribbons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Chips

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a copper kettle, combine sugar and enough water to dissolve it well.

  2. Set the kettle on the fire and stir until dissolved and boiling.

  3. Wash down the sides of the kettle, add cream of tartar, and cook to 340°F (170°C).

  4. Stir in molasses and continue cooking until it reaches 328°F (164°C).

  5. Remove from heat and stir in butter until well combined.

Pull and shape

  1. Pour the mixture onto a greased slab and fold in the edges as it cools.

  2. Add salt and lemon oil, fold together, and pull on a hook.

  3. Shape into a flat piece on the table and pull out ribbons one inch wide.

  4. Immediately mark with a caramel cutter to the desired length.

Cool and break

  1. Lay strips on a cold slab as straight as possible and leave until cold.

  2. Once cold, break apart the strips, ensuring they are thin for better texture.

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

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

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  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
Forms the sweet, brittle glass structure of the candy as it cooks.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor and color, and softens the brittleness of the sugar.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving a smoother bite to the candy.
Cream of tartar
Acts as an acid that helps prevent the sugar from crystallizing.

The step that matters

Pulling the candy to temperature and at the right time. Cooking to the set temperatures controls the sugar concentration and hardness. Pulling while the mass is still warm and pliable creates the glossy, airy ribbons; if it cools too far, it becomes hard to shape.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, molasses, 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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