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Dessert

Old-fashioned Molasses Candy

Molasses candy made by boiling molasses, sugar, butter, and glycerine until hard, then adding cream of tartar or baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream 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 ↓

Old-fashioned Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Combine molasses, sugar, butter, and glycerine in a kettle.

  2. Boil hard for 20 to 30 minutes.

  3. Test by dropping a few drops into cold water; if they retain shape and are brittle, it's done.

Pour and finish

  1. Butter pans or platters well.

  2. Just before pouring the candy, stir in cream of tartar or baking soda.

  3. If desired, add flavoring on top as it cools.

  4. Pull the candy until it is as white as desired, then draw into sticks and cut with shears.

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. Butter + creamtop 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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the main body, dark color and deep, sweet flavor of the candy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture set firm as it cooks down.
Butter
Adds richness and softens the candy's texture slightly.
Glycerine
Keeps the candy tender and helps prevent it from becoming overly grainy or hard.
Cream of tartar or baking soda
Lightens the color and texture of the candy as it is pulled and aerated.

The step that matters

Boil hard for 20 to 30 minutes. The candy must reach the correct concentration to set brittle. Too little boiling leaves it sticky, while overcooking can make it scorch or turn bitter. Testing in cold water confirms when it is ready.

“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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