Skip to main content
Dessert

The Original World's Fair Chewing Taffy

A chewy taffy made from hot water, glucose, sugar, cream, oleo, and other ingredients, flavored with vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

The Original World's Fair Chewing Taffy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the kettle

  1. Scour your kettle with vinegar and salt, then rinse and dry it well.

Make the taffy

  1. In a large kettle, combine hot water, glucose, sugar, cream, oleo, and cream of tartar.

  2. Heat the mixture until it reaches 235°F (113°C).

  3. Dissolve gelatine in 2 oz of hot water and keep it warm.

  4. Stir the mixture continuously with a paddle, ensuring it doesn't touch the coals.

  5. When the mixture begins to boil and foam, stir faster in a circle to release vapor.

  6. Add the dissolved gelatine at the right moment or after removing from heat.

  7. Flavor with vanilla while pulling the taffy.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  3. Sugar + condensed milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cream + condensed milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together416 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Glucose
Adds sweetness and softness, and helps keep the sugar from crystallizing into a grainy texture.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and the main structure that sets as the candy cools.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the taffy a rich, tender chew.
Oleo
Adds fat, which softens the texture and adds richness.
Gelatine
Sets the candy and gives it an elastic, chewy body.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture while it boils and foams. Sugar mixtures can scorch on the bottom or crystallize if stirred unevenly or left too still. Keeping it moving and away from direct heat helps the sugar dissolve evenly and cook smoothly.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes