Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Cream Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the sugar
Moisten the sugar with a little water.
Boil the mixture until it becomes brittle.
Add the lemon extract and cream of tartar.
Pour, pull and cut
Quickly pour the mixture onto buttered plates.
Once cool, pull the candy until it turns white, then cut into squares.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Vinegar + lemontop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,334 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Vinegar + creamtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,064 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White sugar
- Forms the candy's body and sweetness, and sets firm as it cools.
- Vinegar
- Adds acidity that helps keep the sugar smooth rather than grainy.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that helps prevent sugar crystals from forming and keeps the texture tender.
- Royal extract lemon
- Adds lemon aroma and flavour.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until it becomes brittle. The sugar must reach the hard-crack stage so it sets firm and brittle when cool. Stopping early leaves the candy sticky and soft, while overcooking turns the sugar bitter and darkens it.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, cream):
- Vanillafits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“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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