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Dessert

Molasses Candy

Molasses candy is a hard candy made from brown sugar, molasses, water, and butter, flavored with peppermint.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. In a large pot, combine brown sugar, molasses, hot water, and cream of tartar.

  2. Add the butter after boiling begins and stir constantly.

  3. Boil the mixture until it hardens when dropped into cold water.

  4. Remove from heat and flavor with peppermint.

Pull and cut

  1. Once cool, pull the candy until it becomes light in color.

  2. Cut into half-inch pieces using scissors.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Walnut + pepperminttop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together112 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Walnut + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 sweetness and the structure that hardens as the syrup cools.
New orleans molasses
Adds deep flavor and color, and keeps the candy softer and chewier.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent sugar crystals from forming a grainy texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother bite and a richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil until it hardens in cold water. Sugar syrup sets according to its final temperature, which rises as water evaporates. Stopping too early leaves the candy sticky, while boiling too long makes it brittle and hard to pull.

Swap the peppermint

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Peppermintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, cream, walnut, butter. 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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