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 ↓
Candies From Boiled Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a large vessel, mix sugar, water, and cream of tartar.
Boil over a brisk fire for about 15 minutes, ensuring the sugar does not burn.
To test, remove a small portion and cool it in cold water; it should become hard and brittle.
Flavor and shape
Once ready, remove from heat and flavor or color as desired.
Pour into greased dishes and let cool until manageable.
For transparent candy, add flavoring and color with minimal handling.
For opaque candy, pull the cooled mass until white, then shape into sticks or drops.
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 structure as it dissolves and hardens when boiled and cooled.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that helps keep the sugar from crystallizing into a grainy texture.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar syrup. Sugar must reach the right concentration to set hard when cooled. Boiling too long can scorch the sugar, while stopping too early leaves candy soft and sticky. The cold-water test helps judge 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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