Name: Molasses Sauce
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; ½ cup water; 1 tablespoon butter; ¾ teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon salt; 3 tablespoons vinegar; Juice of 1 lemon (optional)

Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Molasses Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Combine molasses, water, butter, cinnamon or nutmeg, salt, and vinegar in a saucepan.
Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat.
Boil for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
If desired, substitute the vinegar with lemon juice.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,928 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,784 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Cinnamon + vinegartop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,187 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses: Provides the main sweetness and dark, rich flavour of the sauce.
Butter: Adds fat for a smoother, rounder mouthfeel in the finished sauce.
Vinegar: Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the molasses.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, cinnamon, vinegar):

Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Applefits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, cinnamon, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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.