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 ↓
White Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and cream of tartar in a kettle.
Pour in water until all sugar is wet.
Place over heat and boil.
To test, dip your finger in water, then into the syrup; if it forms a soft ball when rolled, it's ready.
Finish the fondant
Allow to cool, then stir until creamy.
Knead the fondant until smooth and lump-free.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the sweet base that crystallises into the smooth fondant texture.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent unwanted sugar crystals from forming.
The step that matters
Cooling and stirring the syrup. Stirring too early, before the syrup has cooled enough, lets large sugar crystals form and the fondant turns grainy instead of smooth. Cooling first keeps the crystals tiny.
“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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