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Spiced Popcorn Balls

"A traditional molasses popcorn ball recipe with a little extra kick. Drizzle final product in melted chocolate or roll in crushed walnuts for extra fun. Typically, these would ultimately be wrapped in waxed paper and tied with festive ribbons for presentation purposes. Try walnuts or pecans in place of the peanuts for other variations."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Spiced Popcorn Balls

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spiced Popcorn Balls

12 balls
Prep15 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

339Calories
8 gProtein
26 gFat
23 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 7 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Peanut1 oz (28g)161
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Marshmallownot in our table0
Popcornnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cinnamon + peanuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together278 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Nutmeg + peanuttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

  5. Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,784 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

Swap the peanut

The recipe marks peanut as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Walnutfits better
  3. Flaxseedfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

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