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Dessert

Imitation Indian Corn

A sweet candy made from sugar, water, glucose, lemon flavoring, and yellow color.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Imitation Indian Corn

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a large pot, combine the white sugar and water. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely.

  2. Add the glucose and bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Once boiling, reduce the heat and let it simmer until it reaches the desired consistency.

Flavor and set

  1. Remove from heat and add lemon flavoring and yellow color to the mixture.

  2. Pour the mixture into molds and allow it to cool and set.

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 + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

White sugar
Provides the bulk of the candy and its sweetness, and sets into a firm, crisp texture as it cools.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and clear rather than grainy.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be cooked evenly into a syrup.

The step that matters

Simmering to the desired consistency. Sugar syrup firms as its concentration rises during cooking. Stopping too early leaves the candy soft or sticky, while cooking too long makes it hard and brittle once set.

“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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