Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Spun Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Put the ingredients in a smooth saucepan.
Boil without stirring until the syrup begins to discolor, which is 300°F.
Wash off sugar that adheres to the sides of the saucepan, as in making fondant.
Remove the saucepan from the fire and place it in a larger pan of cold water to instantly stop boiling.
Remove from the cold water and place the saucepan in hot water.
Spin and shape
Place two broomstick handles over the backs of chairs and spread paper on the floor under them.
When the syrup is slightly cooled, put a dipper in the syrup, remove it from the syrup, and shake it quickly back and forth over the broom handles.
Carefully take off the spun sugar as soon as it is formed, and shape it in nests, or pile it lightly on a cold dish.
The syrup may be colored if desired.
Spun sugar is served around bricks or molds of frozen creams and ices.
Dippers for spinning sugar are made of coarse wires; about twenty wires, ten inches long, are put in a bundle, and fastened with wire coiled round and round to form a handle.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
Counts 2 of 3 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Cream | 1 tbsp (15ml) heavy | 51 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
| Water | not in our table | 0 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the syrup and, once cooled and stretched, the fine threads of spun sugar.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that helps prevent the sugar from crystallizing, keeping the syrup smooth.
The step that matters
Let the syrup cool slightly before spinning. Syrup that is too hot stays runny and will not form strong threads, while syrup cooled too far becomes too thick to stretch. Sugar cooked to the right stage and cooled a little is what lets it draw out into fine, glassy strands.
“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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