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Corn Mixture

A sweet and buttery popcorn coated with molasses and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Corn Mixture

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the popcorn

  1. Pop the corn and sift it to remove unpopped kernels.

Make the molasses syrup

  1. In a kettle, combine sugar and just enough water to start boiling.

  2. Boil briefly, then add molasses and continue boiling until it ropes from a spoon or hardens in water.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in butter.

Coat and shape

  1. Add the popped corn and a little salt, mixing well.

  2. Warm the mixture slightly over low heat, then turn it out onto a slab.

  3. Shape into squares or balls as desired.

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.

  1. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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

Sugar
Forms the syrup base and crystallizes into a crisp, sweet coating as it cools.
Molasses
Adds depth of flavor and color, and helps the syrup stay chewy rather than brittle.
Butter
Adds richness and a softer texture to the coating.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to the rope or hard-ball stage. Sugar syrup changes texture sharply with temperature. Stopping too early leaves the coating sticky, while cooking too long makes it brittle and hard to coat the popcorn evenly.

“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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Balls 4

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