Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Molasses Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Mix sugar and cream of tartar together.
Add molasses and water, and stir until sugar is dissolved.
Boil the mixture without stirring until it hardens in cold water.
Set and shape
Pour the mixture into a buttered pan.
When the mixture cools, work the candy and cut it into sticks.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,408 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
- Sugar
- Provides the sweetness and the structure that sets firm as the syrup cooks and cools.
- Molasses
- Adds dark colour, distinctive flavour and moisture to the finished candy.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that helps keep sugar from crystallising, giving a smoother, less grainy candy.
The step that matters
Boil without stirring until it hardens in cold water. Stirring while the syrup boils can trigger sugar crystals, leaving the candy grainy. The syrup must reach the right concentration, so the cold-water test shows whether it has hardened enough.
“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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