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 ↓
Candy of Any Flavor
Ingredients
Directions
Boil the sugar
Mix sugar, water, and cream of tartar in a large vessel.
Boil over a brisk fire, ensuring it does not burn.
After 15 minutes, test a small portion in cold water.
If it forms a string when pulled, control the heat carefully.
Continue testing until it becomes hard and brittle.
Flavor and shape
Remove from heat and stir in flavoring.
Pour into lightly greased shallow dishes and cool.
Once cool enough to handle, pull and roll into sticks or desired shapes.
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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Refined sugar
- Forms the candy's body and sweetness, hardening into brittle glass as the syrup cooks down.
- Cream of tartar
- Its acidity helps keep the sugar from crystallizing, giving a smooth, clear texture.
The step that matters
Continue testing until it becomes hard and brittle. Sugar syrup must be cooked far enough to set hard when cooled. Stopping early leaves a sticky candy, while overcooking darkens the sugar and makes it taste bitter. Testing a small portion in cold water shows when it is ready.
“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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