Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Butter-scotch for a Cold
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
Combine sugar, dark molasses, lard, and lemon juice in a saucepan.
Boil over low heat until the mixture hardens when dropped in cold water.
Set and mark
Pour the mixture onto a well-buttered tin.
Mark into little inch squares 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.
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Molasses + lemontop 36% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,377 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, the hard brittle structure of the candy.
- Dark molasses
- Adds deep flavour and colour, and some moisture that keeps the candy from being purely crystalline.
- Fresh lard
- Adds fat, which softens the texture and makes the set candy less brittle.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps stop sugar from crystallising.
The step that matters
Boil until the mixture hardens in cold water. Sugar candy sets according to how far its water has boiled off. Too little cooking leaves it sticky and soft, while too much makes it bitter and hard to cut. The cold-water drop test shows when it has reached the right stage.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses. 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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