Why it works: Corn and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,345 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Pop Corn Balls
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the corn
Pop the corn and discard any unpopped kernels.
Place the popped corn in a large bowl or dripping pan.
Make the coating
In a kettle, combine a little water and 1 pound of sugar, and boil until it becomes waxy in cold water.
Remove from heat and stir in 6 to 7 tablespoons of gum solution if using.
For home eating, omit the gum solution.
Use ½ pint of stiff taffy made by melting 3 ounces of butter and adding 1 pound of brown sugar.
Stir constantly for 15 minutes.
Shape the balls
Pour the mixture over the corn, mixing with your hands or a stick until fully coated.
Let it sit for a few moments, then lightly flour your hands and shape the mixture into balls.
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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Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,345 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,168 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Popped corn
- Forms the bulk of each ball and gives the light, crisp body.
- Sugar
- Boils to a syrup that coats the corn and sets as it cools, binding the balls.
- Gum solution
- Adds stickiness so the coating holds the balls together better.
- Butter
- Adds richness and softness to the taffy coating.
- Brown sugar
- Adds caramel flavour and sweetness to the taffy coating.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar to the waxy stage. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration; if it is undercooked the coating stays sticky and won't set, and if overcooked it turns hard and brittle. Checking for a waxy texture in cold water indicates the correct stage.
“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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