Skip to main content
Dessert

Divinity Fondant

A sugar fondant made with corn syrup, boiling water, egg white, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Divinity Fondant

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Put sugar and boiling water in a saucepan over low heat; stir until sugar is dissolved, then add corn syrup.

  2. Increase heat and bring to a boil.

Beat and combine

  1. Beat the egg white until light, then add 2 tablespoons of syrup when it reaches boiling; continue beating until light.

  2. Boil the remaining syrup to the soft ball stage (240°F).

  3. Pour the hot syrup slowly over the beaten egg white; fold with a knife until the mixture is white and firm enough to mold.

Shape

  1. Knead until smooth and shape into desired pieces.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Corn + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet crystalline structure of the candy when the syrup cools and sets.
Corn syrup
Interferes with sugar crystal formation, keeping the fondant smooth and tender.
Egg white
Traps air when beaten, giving the fondant a light, airy, white texture.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup to the soft ball stage (240°F). The final syrup concentration sets the candy's texture. Stopping early leaves it too soft to hold its shape, while going too far makes it hard and brittle.

“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.

You might also like

Corn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipesCorn CakesCorn Cakes22 recipesGreen Corn PuddingGreen Corn Pudding14 recipes