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Dessert

Molasses Candy

Molasses candy is a sweet made by boiling molasses with sugar, vinegar, butter, and baking soda, then cooling and cutting into sticks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the taffy

  1. Dissolve the sugar in the vinegar.

  2. Pour the mixture into the molasses and boil, stirring frequently until it hardens when dropped into water.

  3. Stir in the butter and the dissolved baking soda. Flavor to taste and mix well.

  4. Pour into buttered plates or tins.

Cool and shape

  1. As it cools, cut into squares for taffy or pull with your fingers until white, then cut into sticks.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Molasses
Provides the main body, dark color and deep flavor of the taffy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, once boiled, helps the taffy set firm.
Vinegar
Dissolves the sugar and adds acidity that softens the texture of the candy.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the taffy tender and easier to pull.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the vinegar and molasses, lightening the color and making the candy tender.

The step that matters

Boil until it hardens when dropped into water. Sugar candy sets according to how much water has boiled off. Too little boiling leaves the taffy sticky, while too much makes it brittle, so the drop test helps judge the right point.

“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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