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Dessert

Pop Corn Balls

A sweet snack made by boiling molasses, brown sugar, butter, and vinegar, then mixing with popped corn and forming into balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pop Corn Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil together molasses, brown sugar, butter, and vinegar until done.

Form the balls

  1. Stir in enough popped corn to absorb the candy, avoiding hard kernels.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a buttered dish.

  3. Roll into balls while still warm.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark color, and a sticky body that binds the corn.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the candy set firm as it cools.
Butter
Adds richness and keeps the candy from sticking too tightly to the hands.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that softens the sugar texture and balances the sweetness.
Popped corn
Forms the bulk of the ball, with the syrup coating each piece.

The step that matters

Rolling while warm. The cooked syrup hardens as it cools, so the mixture must be shaped while still warm. If it sets first, the balls crack or will not hold together.

“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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