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Molasses Sauce

A thick sauce made from molasses, butter, water, sugar, nutmeg, lemon juice or vinegar, thickened with corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Molasses Sauce

Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Molasses Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Mix the cornstarch with a little cold water.

  2. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

  3. Cook over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Nutmeg + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the main dark color, deep sweetness and rich flavor of the sauce.
Cornstarch (in the method)
Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body and a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness, a smoother mouthfeel and a glossy finish.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the strong flavor of the molasses.
Lemon juice or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and cuts the sweetness of the molasses.

The step that matters

Mix the cornstarch with cold water first. Cornstarch clumps when added dry to hot liquid. Mixing it into cold water first lets the granules disperse, so they can thicken the sauce evenly as it heats.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, sugar, nutmeg, corn. 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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