Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Excelsior Cream Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan.
Stir over medium heat until dissolved.
Allow the mixture to cook without stirring until it forms little bubbles and a drop in cold water snaps.
Cool and shape
Pour the candy onto buttered plates or tins without scraping the saucepan.
Set the candy over a pail of cold water or in a cool place for about 5 minutes.
If desired, add vanilla while the candy is cooling.
Once cool enough to handle, smooth your fingers with lard or butter.
Quickly pull the candy with your fingers until it turns white and becomes brittle.
Stretch the candy on a mixing board.
Cut it into lengths.
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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,050 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar or powdered sugar
- Forms the syrup and then the crystalline candy structure as it is worked.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked into a smooth syrup.
- Lard or butter
- Greases the hands so the cooled candy can be pulled without sticking.
The step that matters
Pulling the candy. Pulling must happen quickly once the candy is cool enough to handle. As the mass cools and is worked, sugar crystals form, turning it white and brittle. If it cools too far before pulling, it becomes hard to stretch.
“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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