Why it works: Molasses and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,123 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Old Fashioned Molasses Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the molasses
Boil the molasses until a drop in water stretches but does not become brittle.
Add ½ teaspoon of baking soda for each quart of molasses while boiling.
Pour and stretch
Pour the hot molasses onto buttered plates and let it cool until it stiffens.
Stretch the candy using your fingertips; it won't stick if butter is used.
If the candy sticks, let it cool a bit more.
Flavor
Add flavoring if desired.
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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Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,123 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Provides the dark body and sweetness, and its sugars set into the candy as it cools.
- Baking soda
- Releases gas during boiling, lightening the texture of the candy as it sets.
- Butter
- Greases the plates and fingers so the hot candy releases and can be stretched without sticking.
The step that matters
Boiling to the right stage. The candy's texture depends on how much water has boiled off and how concentrated the sugar becomes. Stop too early and the candy stays soft and sticky; boil too long and it turns brittle and hard to stretch.
“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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