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Dessert

Molasses Candy

Molasses candy is a hard confection made from molasses, sugar, vinegar, butter, and a pinch of baking soda or cream of tartar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the candy

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

  2. Boil the mixture until it hardens when dropped in cold water.

  3. Stir in a pinch of baking soda or cream of tartar.

Pour and pull

  1. Pour the mixture onto buttered tins.

  2. Once cool, grease your hands and begin to pull the candy.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the main sweetness, dark color, and deep flavor of the candy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and forms the crisp, brittle structure when the mixture hardens.
Vinegar
Acid that helps keep the sugar from crystallizing, giving a smoother texture.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the texture slightly and helps keep the candy from sticking.
Baking soda or cream of tartar
Lightens the color and texture of the candy as it is stirred into the hot mixture.

The step that matters

Boil until it hardens in cold water. Sugar candy sets according to how far it is cooked. Stopping too early leaves it sticky and soft, while cooking too long makes it brittle or scorched. Testing a dropped spoonful in cold water shows when the sugar has reached the right stage.

“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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