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Dessert

Honey Drops

Honey Drops are a sweet candy made from sugar, honey, butter, boiling water, almond extract, and egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Honey Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a pot, combine the sugar, honey, and butter with the boiling water.

  2. Stir until dissolved, then cook slowly until the syrup threads.

  3. Remove from heat and add the almond extract.

Form the drops

  1. Pour the syrup over the beaten egg white and beat until cool.

  2. Drop spoonfuls onto waxed paper.

  3. Decorate with nuts if desired.

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. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  2. Honey + almondtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Honey + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,327 recipes

    Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg white
Whipped with the hot syrup to create a light, airy, foamy texture.
Granulated sugar
Dissolves into the water to form the syrup that sets into the drops.
Honey
Adds sweetness and helps keep the drops soft and moist.
Butter
Adds fat for a richer mouthfeel and smoother texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup until it threads. Cook slowly and stop when the syrup forms a thread, because sugar concentration determines how firm the drops become once cooled. Too little cooking leaves them sticky; too much makes them hard.

“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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