Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Hoarhound Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the hoarhound tea
Boil 1 quart of water with the dried hoarhound until reduced to 1 pint.
Strain the tea over 4 pounds of brown sugar.
Cook and pull the candy
Boil the mixture without stirring until it reaches candy stage.
When nearly done, add 1 tablespoon of butter.
Pull the candy very little.
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 + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 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
- Provides the bulk of the candy and its sweet, caramel-like flavor as it cooks to candy stage.
- Hoarhound
- Supplies the bitter, herbal flavor that defines the candy once steeped into a tea.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a richer flavor and a smoother, softer bite in the finished candy.
The step that matters
Boil without stirring until candy stage. Stirring during boiling can trigger sugar crystallization, leading to a grainy rather than smooth candy. Sugar must reach the correct temperature to set firmly, so the mixture should be cooked until it reaches candy stage.
“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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