Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 238°F (114°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Wrap a two‑inch wide strip of cheesecloth around the blade of a small paddle to make a swab.
In a clean copper kettle, combine sugar, cream of tartar, and water.
Make the syrup
Stir briefly with a wooden spoon, then place on the fire and bring to a boil without stirring.
Skim the mixture as needed while boiling rapidly.
Wash down any sugar crystals on the sides of the kettle with the wet swab.
Cook until the syrup forms a soft ball in cold water, about 238°F (114°C).
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the bulk of the syrup and sets the sweetness and the fine crystal texture of the fondant.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that partly breaks down sugar, helping keep the syrup smooth rather than grainy.
The step that matters
Wash down the sugar crystals on the kettle sides. Stray sugar crystals on the pan walls can fall back into the boiling syrup and seed unwanted crystallization, making the finished fondant grainy. Wiping them away with the wet swab keeps the syrup clear and smooth.
“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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