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Dessert

Ice Cream Candy

A pulled candy made from sugar, vinegar, water, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Ice Cream Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Combine sugar, vinegar, and water in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture until it hardens when dipped in cold water.

  3. Pour the mixture onto buttered plates.

Pull and cut

  1. Once cool enough to handle, pull the candy until it turns white.

  2. Cut the pulled candy into sticks.

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

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

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

White sugar
Forms the candy base, setting firm as the syrup boils down and cools.
Vinegar
Acidity helps keep the sugar from recrystallising, giving a smoother texture.
Butter
Fat coats the plates and hands, reducing sticking while the candy is pulled.

The step that matters

Boil until it hardens in cold water. Sugar syrup sets according to how far its water has boiled off. Pulling it too early leaves it sticky, while overcooking makes it brittle and hard to pull.

“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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