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Dessert

Artificial Honey

A syrup made by dissolving brown sugar and water, adding cream of tartar, honey, and peppermint essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Artificial Honey

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Dissolve the brown sugar in water slowly and skim off any foam.

  2. Dissolve the cream of tartar in a little warm water and add it to the mixture. Stir well.

Finish and cool

  1. Add the heated honey.

  2. Add the peppermint essence and stir.

  3. Let cool.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Peppermint + honeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together345 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  3. Cream + pepperminttop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together632 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + honeytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,932 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + pepperminttop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,082 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Forms the bulk of the syrup and provides sweetness and a molasses-like depth.
Cream of tartar
Acidity that helps prevent sugar from crystallising, keeping the honey smooth.
Honey
Adds honey flavour and further helps keep the syrup from turning grainy.

The step that matters

Dissolve the brown sugar slowly and skim the foam. Sugar dissolved slowly in water avoids scorching and crystals on the pan. Skimming removes impurities that would cloud the syrup and spoil its clarity.

Swap the peppermint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, honey):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, honey. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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