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Dessert

Popcorn Crisps

A sweet and salty treat made by coating popped corn with a sugar, glucose, molasses, butter, and salt syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Popcorn Crisps

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, glucose, and water in a large pot.

  2. Cook over high heat until the mixture becomes brittle in cold water.

  3. Stir continuously until it begins to boil.

  4. Wipe down the sides of the pot with a damp cloth.

  5. Add molasses, butter, and salt once the mixture is brittle.

  6. Stir constantly until it starts to burn.

Coat and set

  1. Pour the syrup over the popped corn.

  2. Mix the popped corn well with the syrup.

  3. Spread the mixture onto a slab or platters to cool and harden.

  4. Remove any unpopped kernels before adding the syrup.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Molasses + corntop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together644 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

Sugar
Forms the hard, brittle candy structure as the syrup cooks and cools.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystals, keeping the syrup smooth and the candy from turning grainy.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor, color, and a slightly chewy note to the coating.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavor and a softer bite in the coating.
Popped corn
Forms the base that the hardened syrup coats and holds together.

The step that matters

Stop cooking the syrup at the brittle stage. Sugar syrup hardens as its water boils off and its concentration rises. Cooking it to brittle gives a crisp set, but going on past that point scorches the sugar, making it bitter and dark.

“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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