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Dessert

Popcorn Balls

Popcorn balls are sweet, chewy treats made by coating popped corn with a caramelized molasses and sugar mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Popcorn Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a large iron kettle, cook the molasses, vinegar, brown sugar, and baking soda until it reaches the hard crack stage.

  2. Remove from heat and add the baking soda dissolved in 1 tablespoon of hot water.

Add the popcorn and shape

  1. When the mixture begins to rise, quickly stir in the popcorn until well mixed.

  2. Turn the mixture out onto a buttered or oiled platter and shape into balls while still warm.

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. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Molasses
Provides deep sweetness and flavor, and a chewy texture as the syrup cools.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the syrup set firm and chewy when cooled.
Vinegar
Adds a slight acidity that helps keep the sugar syrup smooth rather than grainy.
Baking soda
Reacts with the hot syrup so it foams and rises, lightening the set coating.
Freshly popped corn
Forms the bulk of each ball, held together by the syrup coating.

The step that matters

Stir in the popcorn as soon as the mixture begins to rise. Once baking soda reacts with the hot syrup, the mixture foams and begins to set quickly. Adding the popcorn promptly lets it coat evenly before the syrup stiffens.

“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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