Why it works: Sugar and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fondant
Dissolve the sugar in milk or water and boil until a spoonful dropped into cold water forms a firm ball.
Set the dish immediately in a pan of cold water.
When it begins to cool, beat it to a cream.
Shape and rest
Mould into a loaf and set away in a cool place to ripen if not using immediately.
For immediate use, skip the ripening step.
Form candies into blocks, rolls, cones, or wafers as desired.
Flavour and add-ins
To add flavors and colors, incorporate them while beating to a cream before moulding.
You can also add chopped nuts, candied cherries, figs, or dates for variety.
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 + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
- Sugar
- Forms the sweet base that recrystallises into the smooth, soft texture of fondant.
- Milk or water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled to the correct concentration.
The step that matters
Boiling to the firm-ball stage. The sugar syrup must reach the right concentration before cooling. Too little boiling leaves the fondant soft and runny, while overboiling makes it hard and grainy once beaten.
“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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