Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
On Sugar-spinning
Ingredients
Directions
Rub the mould with butter or oil.
Boil clarified syrup until it reaches the caramel stage, keeping the sides of the pan free from sugar.
Once at the crack stage, add a little acid to grease the syrup.
Dip the bottom of the pan into cold water to cool it slightly.
Using a common tablespoon, dip it in the sugar and run the sugar over the mould, forming threads as desired.
Create a trellis-work design on the mould.
Carefully loosen the sugar from the mould and let it cool completely before removing it.
If the sugar cools too much to flow, warm it near the stove to melt it.
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 + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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