Skip to main content
Dessert

Cracker Jack

A caramelized popcorn confection made with sugar, molasses, butter, alum, baking soda, and popped corn.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Cracker Jack

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coating

  1. In a saucepan, combine the light brown sugar, New Orleans molasses, butter, alum, and baking soda.

  2. Boil the mixture until it reaches the hard ball stage.

Coat the corn

  1. Pour the hot mixture over the popped corn and stir to coat evenly.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Light brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the caramel flavor that defines the coating.
New orleans molasses
Adds deep flavor and moisture, and helps the coating stay tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the coating a smoother texture.
Alum
Helps the sugar syrup stay crisp and less sticky as it cools.
Baking soda
Lightens the syrup, making the coating crisp and brittle rather than dense.

The step that matters

Boil to the hard ball stage. Sugar syrup must reach the hard ball stage so the coating sets crisp once cooled. Undercooked syrup stays sticky, while overcooked syrup turns bitter or brittle to the point of breaking.

“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.

You might also like

Molasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipes