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Molasses Candy

Molasses candy is a hard candy made from molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, butter, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar 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 ↓

Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Combine molasses, brown sugar, vinegar, and melted butter in a saucepan.

  2. Boil without stirring for about 25 minutes until it hardens in cold water.

  3. Add baking soda and stir just enough to mix.

  4. Pour the mixture into shallow, well-buttered tins.

Set and pull

  1. Let the candy harden.

  2. Optionally, pull the candy by dipping your hands in ice water or melted butter.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Molasses + vinegartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,253 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

New orleans molasses
Provides the dark color, rich flavor, and sweetness of the candy.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture reach a hard, brittle set.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that helps prevent sugar from crystallizing into a grainy texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic syrup to release gas, lightening the candy's texture.

The step that matters

Add baking soda and stir just enough to mix. Baking soda reacts quickly with the acidic hot syrup, foaming it up. Overstirring knocks out the gas bubbles, so the candy turns dense instead of light and porous.

“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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