Why it works: Butter and nuts are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,291 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Molasses Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
Boil 1 quart of molasses slowly, stirring occasionally.
Optionally, add flavorings, nuts, or popcorn while boiling.
Add a small piece of alum to make it more brittle if desired.
To check if it is done, drop a spoonful into cold water; if it breaks brittle, remove from heat.
Pour and stretch
Grease flat pans with butter and pour the hot candy into them.
Let it cool, then stretch the candy until it becomes a light color.
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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Butter + nutstop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,291 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
-
Molasses + nutstop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together206 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,123 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Forms the body of the candy and gives it its dark color and rich flavor.
- Alum
- Makes the finished candy more brittle when used in small amounts.
The step that matters
Testing for doneness in cold water. Molasses must reach the right concentration to set brittle. Removing it too early leaves candy that stays soft and sticky, while cooking too long can make it bitter and hard to stretch.
Swap the nuts
The recipe marks nuts as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter):
- Almondfits better
- Pecansfits better
- Walnutfits about as well
- Nutsthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter. 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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