Why it works: Butter and maple syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,084 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Maple Sugar Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grease a tin with a small amount of butter.
Cook and set
Boil maple syrup for about 10 minutes without stirring.
Once done, pour the syrup into the buttered tin.
Allow to cool and then cut into squares.
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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Butter + maple syruptop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,084 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
- Maple syrup
- Provides the sweetness and the sugar that boils down and sets into a firm candy.
- Butter
- Greases the tin so the set candy releases cleanly and does not stick.
The step that matters
Boil without stirring. Stirring a boiling sugar syrup can encourage crystals to form, which can make the candy grainy instead of smooth and glassy.
“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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