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Dessert

Molasses Candy

Molasses candy is a sweet made by boiling sugar, molasses, and water, then adding cream of tartar and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, molasses, and water in a saucepan.

  2. Bring to a boil, then add cream of tartar.

  3. Cook without stirring until done, then remove from heat.

Finish and pull

  1. Add butter and mix in.

  2. Once cool, pull the candy without buttering your hands.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides the main sweetness and the firm body of the candy as it cooks and sets.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor, dark color, and a chewy texture with some moisture.
Cream of tartar
Acidity helps prevent sugar from crystallizing, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the candy and gives it a tender bite and richer flavor.

The step that matters

Cook without stirring until done. Stirring a boiling sugar syrup can encourage sugar crystals to form, which makes the candy grainy. Cream of tartar helps limit this, so the syrup should be left alone until it reaches the point of doneness.

“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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