Why it works: Molasses and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,123 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Molasses Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the molasses
In a large kettle, pour in a quantity of Puerto Rico molasses, ensuring the kettle is at least four times the amount of molasses.
Place the kettle over a slow fire and boil for 30 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent overflow. Be careful not to let the candy burn, especially towards the end of boiling.
To test, drop a little candy in cold water; it should harden and snap like a pipestem.
Add soda and cool
Add 1 teaspoon of carbonate of soda for every 2 quarts of molasses, stirring quickly to mix.
Pour the mixture onto greased platters to cool.
Pull the candy
Once cool enough to handle, pull the candy back and forth, using butter on your hands to prevent sticking.
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.
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Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,123 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
- Porto rico molasses
- Provides the sweetness, dark color and main body of the candy.
- Carbonate of soda
- Reacts with the hot molasses to add gas bubbles, lightening the candy's texture.
The step that matters
Avoid burning during the final boil. Molasses sugars darken and scorch quickly near the end of boiling, giving a bitter flavor. Stirring steadily and watching the temperature closely prevents this.
“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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