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 ↓
Ice Cream Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Combine the sugar and water in a pot.
Add the cream of tartar and boil until it ropes or forms a thread when dropped in a glass of ice water.
Pull the mixture until it becomes very white.
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
What each ingredient does
- White sugar
- Forms the bulk of the candy and sets into a firm, brittle structure as it cools.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent crystallisation so the candy stays smooth.
The step that matters
Boiling until it forms a thread. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set firm. Stopping too early leaves a soft, sticky candy, while boiling too long makes it hard and brittle. The ice water test shows when the syrup has reached the correct 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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