Why it works: Sugar and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 98,233 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Everton Toffee, Miss. Wyllie
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the toffee
Rub the butter over the bottom of a large saucepan.
Add the treacle and sugar, stirring gently with a knife.
Boil for about 10 minutes.
Drop a little mixture into a basin of cold water; check that it is crisp when removed.
Pour and set
Prepare a large, shallow tin pan greased with butter.
Pour the toffee into the pan to cool.
Remove the toffee from the pan.
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 + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Treacle
- Adds dark colour, a rich flavour and moisture to the toffee.
- Moist sugar
- Provides sweetness and, once boiled, hardens as the mixture cools.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a smooth texture and richness, and keeps the toffee from sticking.
The step that matters
Testing for crispness in cold water. Sugar syrup hardens as its water boils off and its temperature rises. Stopping too early leaves the toffee soft and sticky, while boiling too long makes it bitter and can scorch it. The cold-water test shows whether it has reached the right stage.
“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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