Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
To Make Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar, cream of tartar, and water in a saucepan.
Bring to a boil without stirring until it reaches the soft ball stage (236°F - 238°F).
Test and cool
Test by dropping a little into cold water; it should form a soft ball.
Remove from heat and let cool until a crust forms.
Finish
Stir until thick and creamy; if it becomes grainy, cook again with a little cool water.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the candy structure and provides the sweetness as it crystallises into a smooth mass.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent unwanted large sugar crystals from forming.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can be heated evenly into a syrup before cooling.
The step that matters
Bring to a boil without stirring. Stirring while the syrup boils can trigger sugar crystals to form, leading to a grainy texture. Cooking to the exact soft ball temperature controls how much water remains, which sets the final firmness.
“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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