Why it works: Cinnamon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Cinnamon Confection
Ingredients
Directions
Crush the cinnamon and mix it with clarified sugar or syrup of molasses.
Boil the sugar until it reaches the crack stage.
To test, dip your finger in cold water, then into the boiling sugar; it should form a ball in the water that is hard enough to stick to your teeth.
Once at the right stage, remove from heat.
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.
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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and, when boiled to the crack stage, sets into a hard, brittle candy.
- Cinnamon
- Adds warm aroma and flavor to the confection.
- Clarified sugar or syrup of mallows
- Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps keep the cooked sugar smooth.
The step that matters
Removing the sugar at the crack stage. Sugar keeps hardening and darkening as its temperature rises. Going past the crack stage can make it bitter or burnt, so testing in cold water and removing it from heat at the right point matters.
“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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