Name: Ice Cream Taffy
Ingredients: 2 pounds sugar; 1 pound glucose; 1 pint milk or cream; 1 tablespoon butter; paraffin wax, size of a walnut

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ice Cream Taffy

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 256°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the syrup

Combine sugar, glucose, milk or cream, and butter in a pot.
Dissolve the mixture over medium heat.
Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until it reaches 256°F or 258°F.

Cool and pull

Pour the mixture onto a slab or platter.
Once cool, pull the taffy until it becomes light in color.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,832 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Milk + walnuttop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,236 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together77,875 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar: Provides the bulk of the sweetness and forms the firm, chewy candy structure as it cooks.
Glucose: Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the taffy smooth and preventing grainy texture.
Milk or cream: Adds moisture, richness and milk solids that give the taffy its creamy flavour and colour.
Butter: Adds fat for a softer bite and a rich, smooth mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, stirring constantly until it reaches 256°F or 258°F. Cooking to the target temperature sets the sugar concentration and therefore the final firmness of the taffy. Stirring prevents scorching and sugar crystals from forming, which would make the candy grainy.