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Dessert

Treacle Toffee

A sweet confection made from treacle, brown sugar, vinegar, soda, butter, and almond essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Treacle Toffee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the toffee

  1. In a sugar boiler or stewpan, combine the brown sugar and vinegar, and heat until dissolved.

  2. Add the treacle and boil until it reaches the 'large ball' stage.

  3. Remove the pan from the heat, then add the dissolved soda, butter, and almond essence.

  4. Boil again until it reaches the 'little crack' stage, then pour into an oiled or buttered tin.

Set and break

  1. When partially set, mark into bars or squares, and once firm, break into sections.

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 + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Treacle
Gives the toffee its dark colour, rich flavour and chewy body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel-like flavour as it cooks.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps keep the sugar smooth rather than grainy.
Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the acid, lightening the colour and softening the set toffee.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boiling to the 'little crack' stage. The final boil sets the hardness of the toffee. Stopping early leaves it soft and sticky, while going too far can scorch the sugar and give a bitter taste.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, vinegar):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Sesamefits about as well
  3. Soybeanfits about as well
  4. Peanutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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