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Dessert

Chocolate Taffy

Chocolate taffy is a chewy candy made from milk, chocolate, sugar, molasses, butter, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chocolate Taffy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the taffy

  1. Boil the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Dissolve the chocolate in a tin cup over the fire and stir it into the milk.

  3. Add the sugar and molasses, and let it boil constantly for about an hour.

  4. Stir in the butter and baking soda.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into buttered pans and mark into squares.

  2. Set aside to cool.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Milk
Provides liquid and dairy richness that softens the chewy texture of the taffy.
Chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and some fat, colouring the taffy dark.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, once boiled, the firm sugar structure that sets the taffy.
Molasses
Adds deep flavour and moisture, and darkens the taffy.
Butter
Adds fat that gives a smoother, less brittle chew.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lighten the mixture and soften its texture.

The step that matters

Boiling for about an hour. The mixture must be boiled constantly so enough water evaporates and the sugar concentrates; too little boiling leaves a soft, sticky taffy, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

“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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