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Dessert

Taffy Candy

A chewy candy made from brown sugar, molasses, butter, lemon peel, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Taffy Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Fill a quart saucepan halfway with coarse brown sugar.

  2. Moisten the sugar with molasses.

  3. Add 2 tablespoons of butter, a little lemon peel, and lemon juice.

Cook and pour

  1. Let the mixture boil.

  2. Pour it into well buttered tins while it is still thin.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 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

Brown sugar
Provides the main sweetness and, once boiled and cooled, the chewy body of the candy.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep flavor, and a darker color while keeping the candy soft.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, more tender bite and helps keep the candy from sticking.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and helps stop the sugar from crystallizing.
Lemon peel
Adds a fresh citrus aroma.

The step that matters

Pouring while still thin. Once the boiled sugar mixture cools, it thickens and sets quickly. Pouring it while still fluid lets it fill the buttered tins evenly before it hardens.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, 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.

More taffy candy recipes

White 4

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