Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Sugar Taffy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Dissolve sugar in water with citric acid.
Boil and remove the scum.
Test by dropping in cold water; it should crack.
Finish and set
Remove from heat and mix in lemon or orange juice.
Boil again until thick.
Pour into buttered pans in a thin layer.
Mark into square blocks before it cools.
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.
-
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 body of the taffy and sets firm as the syrup cooks down.
- Citric acid
- Adds tartness and helps keep the sugar from crystallising too readily.
- Lemon or orange juice
- Adds acidity and bright flavour, and helps prevent sugar crystals from forming.
The step that matters
Testing with cold water. The cold-water test shows whether the sugar has reached the right stage by cracking when dropped in. Pulling it off heat too early leaves it soft, and cooking too long makes it hard and brittle.
“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.
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.