Name: Best New Orleans Molasses
Ingredients: 1 gallon water; 10 lbs sugar; ½ teaspoon cream of tartar; 3 teaspoons finely powdered tartaric acid; 20 drops oil of lemon

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Best New Orleans Molasses

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

In a kettle, combine 10 lbs of sugar and 2 quarts of water.
Bring to a boil and add ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar.
Insert a thermometer and boil until it reaches 305°F (152°C) or until the syrup gives a hard snap when tested.

Add flavour and shape

Remove from heat and pour onto a marble surface, spreading it to about ¼ inch thick.
Sprinkle 3 teaspoons of tartaric acid and 20 drops of oil of lemon evenly over the hot sugar.
Fold the edges into the center repeatedly to form a lump and knead like dough to dissolve the acid into the sugar.
Shape the mixture into drops with scissors or roll into sticks.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Cream + lemontop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together15,640 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

Sugar: Forms the bulk of the candy and sets into a hard, glassy structure as the syrup cools.
Cream of tartar: Acidic salt that helps prevent the sugar from recrystallizing, keeping the candy smooth.
Tartaric acid: Adds a sharp, sour tang that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Oil of lemon: Provides a strong lemon aroma and flavour.

The step that matters

Boil to 305°F (152°C) or the hard-snap stage. Boiling to this temperature drives off enough water for the sugar to set hard when cooled. Stopping early leaves a sticky candy that will not hold its shape; boiling too long makes it brittle and possibly scorched.