Name: Granulated Sugar
Ingredients: Granulated sugar; Vinegar or cream of tartar (optional); Butter (for greasing)

Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Granulated Sugar

Ingredients

Granulated sugar
Vinegar or cream of tartar (optional)
Butter (for greasing)

Directions

Cook the syrup

Boil granulated sugar until it forms a thick drop on a fork and long threads hang from it.
Do not stir the syrup while hot to prevent graining.
For soft candies, remove from heat and stir to a cream when nearly cold.
For hard candies, boil until a drop cracks in cold water.

Finish and handle

Butter your hands to prevent sticking when handling the candy.
Grease the inside of the cooking dish with butter to control syrup rising.
To prevent graining in common crack candies, add 1 teaspoon of vinegar or cream of tartar.

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.

Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,806 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Vinegar + buttertop 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

Granulated sugar: Forms the candy's body as the syrup cooks and sets into a firm or creamy texture.
Vinegar or cream of tartar: Acid that helps stop the sugar from forming gritty crystals, keeping the candy smooth.