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Dessert

Divinity Candy

A hard candy made with sugar, corn syrup, water, egg whites, and optional nutmeats.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrups

  1. In a saucepan, combine ⅔ cup water, 2 cups granulated sugar, and 1 cup corn syrup. Cook until it forms a soft ball in cold water, about 12 minutes.

  2. In a second saucepan, combine ½ cup water and 1 cup granulated sugar. Cook until it threads when dropped from a spoon.

Combine and set

  1. When the first mixture is ready, slowly pour it over the beaten egg whites while whisking briskly.

  2. Once it reaches a satisfactory stage, slowly add the second mixture while continuing to beat.

  3. Stir in the nutmeats if using, then pour the mixture into a buttered tin and score into squares when cool.

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

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that traps air, giving the candy its light, airy structure.
Granulated sugar
Forms the cooked syrup that sets into a firm, sweet candy as it cools.
Corn syrup
Interferes with sugar crystals, keeping the candy smooth and tender rather than grainy.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the whites. Pour the syrup slowly while whisking briskly. Hot syrup added too fast can deflate the foam or partly cook the egg whites unevenly, and the candy loses its light texture.

“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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