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Dessert

Syrup for Corn Balls

A sweet syrup made from sugar, molasses, water, cream of tartar, and butter, used to coat corn balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Syrup for Corn Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, molasses, hot water, cream of tartar, and butter.

  2. Boil the mixture until it becomes brittle when dropped in cold water.

Coat and shape

  1. Pour the syrup over the corn while hot and stir well.

  2. Form the mixture into balls.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, as it cooks, the hard, brittle sugar structure that holds the coating.
Molasses
Adds deep flavour and colour, and some moisture to the syrup.
Cream of tartar
Its acidity helps keep the sugar smooth and prevents it from crystallising.
Butter
Adds fat that softens the syrup's texture and gives it a richer mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil until brittle in cold water. Sugar syrup sets according to its final temperature. Stopping too early leaves the coating sticky, while boiling too long makes it hard and can scorch the molasses.

“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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