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Molasses Candy

Molasses candy is a sweet treat made by boiling molasses, brown sugar, and butter until hard, then adding cream of tartar, baking soda, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine molasses, brown sugar, and butter.

  2. Boil for 20 minutes or until it hardens when dropped in cold water.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in cream of tartar, baking soda, and vinegar.

  4. Let the mixture cool until it's safe to pull.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the dark color, rich flavor, and most of the sweetness and body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and sugar that sets into a firm, brittle candy when boiled.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother texture and a richer mouthfeel.
Cream of tartar
Its acidity helps keep sugar crystals small, giving a smoother candy.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the mixture to release gas, making the candy light and airy.

The step that matters

Boil until it hardens in cold water. The final sugar concentration, reached by boiling, determines whether the candy sets firm or stays soft. Too little boiling leaves it sticky, while too much makes it brittle and possibly burnt.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, cream, vinegar. 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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