Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
On Candying Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
Wash the fruit in lukewarm water and dry it in the oven.
Boil syrup until it reaches a blow stage.
Add the fruit to the syrup and boil until the syrup reaches the blow stage again.
Remove the pan from heat and let it stand for a few minutes.
Rub the inside of the pan with a skimmer to grain the sugar.
Stir the fruit into the white sugar part using a fork.
Place the fruit on a wire rack over a pan to drain.
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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Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,842 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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