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Dessert

Molasses Chips

Molasses Chips are a sweet confection made from sugar, glucose, water, butter, molasses, lemon, and vanilla coating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Molasses Chips

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy base

  1. In a kettle, combine 8 lbs sugar, 2 lbs glucose, and 3 pints water.

  2. Cook the mixture to 300°F (150°C).

  3. Add ½ lb butter and 1 pint molasses, then boil well.

  4. Remove from heat and pour onto a greased slab.

Pull and shape

  1. Knead the mixture with gloves on and pull it while adding a few drops of lemon.

  2. When well pulled, twist out the air and place it on a table before a table furnace.

  3. Flatten it out and form it into a ham shape.

  4. Pull out strips about 1 inch wide and as thin as cardboard.

  5. Mark in 1½ inch lengths and break apart.

  6. Dip in vanilla coating.

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 + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

Sugar
Forms the main structure of the candy as it cooks and sets.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and pliable rather than grainy.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep flavor, and moisture to the candy.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the texture and gives a richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cooking to 300°F (150°C). This is the hard-crack stage, where the sugar concentration is high enough for the candy to set firm and brittle. Undercooking leaves it sticky, while overcooking can scorch it and give a bitter taste.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, molasses, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, molasses, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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