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 ↓
Cream Fondant No. 3
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil the sugar and water until it reaches 240°F (115°C).
Pour the mixture onto a clean, cold slab and let it rest undisturbed until cool.
Work the fondant
Sprinkle the cream of tartar over the cooled mixture and turn the edges with a spatula.
Work the mixture back and forth with a cream scraper until it granulates into a smooth mass.
Immediately scrape off any fondant that has adhered to the scraper or beater.
Knead the fondant with your hands into a soft, putty-like mass.
Place the fondant into an earthen crock or pan and cover with a damp cloth until ready to use.
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 fondant, crystallising into a smooth, fine-grained mass as it cools and is worked.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent large sugar crystals from forming for a smoother texture.
The step that matters
Let the syrup rest undisturbed until cool. Stirring or jostling a cooling supersaturated sugar syrup can trigger early, large crystal formation, leaving the fondant grainy instead of 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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