Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Carmel Sugars
Ingredients
Directions
Boil sugar in water until it reaches the carmel height, testing by dipping a stick into cold water.
Ensure the fire is not too fierce to prevent burning.
To make red color, boil 1 ounce of cochineal in ½ cup of water for 5 minutes.
Add ½ ounce of cream of tartar and ½ ounce of pounded alum, and boil on low heat for another 5 minutes.
Test the color by dipping a pen into it and writing on white paper.
Remove from heat, add 2 ounces of sugar, and let it settle.
Pour off the clear liquid and store in a well-stopped bottle.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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