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Dessert

Molasses Candy

Molasses candy is a sweet confection made from sugar, molasses, water, butter, and optionally hickorynut meats.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses 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 ↓

Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Combine sugar, molasses, water, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture hard while stirring continuously.

  3. Test the candy by dipping a small amount in cold water.

Finish and set

  1. Let it cool enough to handle.

  2. Pull it until it turns white.

  3. If desired, mix in hickorynut meats.

  4. Pour the mixture onto buttered pans and let it cool completely.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Granulated sugar
Provides sweetness and forms the crystal structure that sets the candy.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor and moisture, and gives the candy its dark color.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and a smoother bite.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture hard while stirring continuously. Sugar syrup must reach the correct concentration to set firm. Stirring keeps the sugar from crystallizing or scorching on the pan bottom, and the cook needs to judge the temperature and stage carefully.

“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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