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Dessert

Magnet Molasses Taffy

Molasses taffy is a chewy candy made from brown sugar, molasses, water, cream of tartar, and cream.

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

Magnet Molasses Taffy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the taffy

  1. In a large pot, combine water, brown sugar, and cream of tartar.

  2. Bring to a boil until the mixture is stiff enough to hold its shape when dropped into cold water.

  3. Stir in the molasses and continue boiling until thick.

Cool and pull

  1. Grease a large platter or marble slab and pour the mixture onto it.

  2. Once cooled, pull the taffy using a hook or nail.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + molassestop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 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

Brown sugar
Provides the bulk of the sweetness and the caramel-like flavour and colour.
Molasses
Adds deep flavour and darker colour, and keeps the taffy softer and chewier.
Cream of tartar
Acid that helps prevent sugar crystals from forming, giving a smoother texture.
Cream
Adds fat and milky richness, softening the texture of the taffy.

The step that matters

Boiling to the right stiffness. The cook must judge when the syrup is stiff enough to hold its shape in cold water. Boiling too little leaves the taffy sticky and soft, while boiling too long makes it hard and brittle once cooled.

“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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