Name: Vinegar Candy
Ingredients: 2 cups sugar; 1 cup vinegar; 1 teaspoon water; 1 teaspoon butter; Flavoring to taste

Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Vinegar Candy

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the candy

In a saucepan, combine sugar, vinegar, water, and butter.
Cook over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves.
Continue cooking without stirring until the mixture reaches the hard crack stage (300°F or 150°C).

Finish and set

Remove from heat and add flavoring.
Pour onto a greased surface and let cool before breaking into pieces.

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.

Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,513 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar: Forms the sweet, brittle glass structure of the candy as it cools.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that helps prevent sugar from recrystallizing, keeping the candy smooth and clear.

The step that matters

Continue cooking without stirring until the hard crack stage. Stirring at this point can trigger sugar crystals to form, making the candy grainy. The candy must reach the hard crack stage, around 300°F, so that it sets hard and brittle rather than chewy or sticky once cooled.

“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.