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Cracker-jack

A candied popcorn confection made by cooking sugar, molasses, water and butter and coating popped corn in it.

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 ↓

Cracker-jack

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a large kettle, combine sugar, molasses, water, and butter.

  2. Cook until the mixture is brittle when dropped in cold water.

  3. Add a pinch of baking soda when it begins to boil.

Coat and set

  1. Once the mixture is brittle, add the popped corn and stir until coated.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a board and press it flat.

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. Coffee + corntop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together247 recipes

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

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the brittle candy base that sets crisp as it cools.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor and color, and contributes to the candy's brittle texture.
Popped corn
Provides the body of the candy, held together by the cooked syrup.
Baking soda
Creates tiny gas bubbles in the hot syrup, lightening the brittle's texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to brittle. The syrup must reach the hard-crack stage so it sets brittle rather than chewy. Undercooked syrup stays sticky, while overcooked syrup can taste bitter and burn. Test by dropping a little into cold water.

“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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