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 ↓
Boiled Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar, boiling water, and cream of tartar in a saucepan.
Stir until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring and cover.
Boil moderately for 5 minutes without moving the vessel.
Remove the cover and test by dropping a little mixture into cold water; it should form a soft, gluey ball.
Cool and work
Remove from heat, cover with a wet towel, and let cool for 15 minutes.
Stir gently, avoiding the crystals on the sides of the pan.
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 crystal structure that gives fondant its smooth, soft body.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that helps prevent large sugar crystals from forming, keeping the texture smooth.
The step that matters
Stir gently after cooling, avoiding the crystals on the sides of the pan. Stirring during or after boiling can trigger premature crystallization of the sugar. Crystals clinging to the pan sides can seed the whole batch, so the fondant turns grainy instead of smooth.
“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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