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Maple Cream

A sweet sauce made from light brown sugar, corn syrup, milk, butter, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Maple Cream

Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Maple Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine light brown sugar, corn syrup, and milk.

  2. Heat the mixture slowly, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Bring to a boil and cook until it reaches the soft ball stage (around 240°F or 115°C).

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and stir in butter and chopped nuts.

  2. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Corn + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Corn + nutstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Light brown sugar
Supplies the sweetness and molasses flavor that defines the candy.
Corn syrup
Interferes with sugar crystal formation, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
Milk
Adds moisture and milk solids that give the candy a softer, creamier texture.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the texture and gives a rich mouthfeel.
Chopped nuts
Add crunch and a toasted, nutty flavor.

The step that matters

Cooking to the soft ball stage. Stopping short leaves the candy too soft to set, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle. Sugar that is not fully dissolved before boiling can recrystallize and turn grainy.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, corn, syrup, milk, butter):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Peanutfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, syrup, milk, 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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