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 ↓
To Make Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine water and sugar in a saucepan and stir slowly until the sugar is completely dissolved without boiling.
Dissolve cream of tartar in 2 teaspoons of water and add it when the sugar begins to boil.
Once dissolved, boil rapidly on high heat.
Dip your fingers in water and wash down any dry crystals on the sides of the pan to prevent crystallization.
Cover the pot for a minute while boiling to help prevent crystallization.
Test and finish
After 3-4 minutes of boiling, test by dipping a finger in cold water and then into the boiling sugar; it should form a soft ball.
Use a thermometer; the mixture is ready when it reaches 235°F (113°C) but must not exceed 240°F (116°C).
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
- Sugar
- Forms the candy's bulk and, once cooked to temperature, sets into a smooth, fine-textured fondant.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked into a syrup without burning.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that helps prevent large sugar crystals from forming, keeping the fondant smooth.
The step that matters
Stirring until dissolved, then boiling without stirring. Any undissolved sugar crystals on the pan sides can seed crystallization, making the fondant grainy. Washing them down with wet fingers prevents this, and the cook should avoid overshooting the target temperature, since going above 240°F makes the candy hard.
“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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