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 ↓
White Fondant
Ingredients
Directions
Combine sugar, hot water, and cream of tartar in a smooth granite saucepan and stir the mixture.
Heat gradually to boiling point.
Boil without stirring until it reaches the soft ball stage (238°F or 114°C).
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Forms the sweet crystalline base that the finished fondant is built from.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that helps keep the sugar syrup from crystallizing into a grainy texture.
- Hot water
- Dissolves the sugar so it can form a smooth, even syrup.
The step that matters
Boil without stirring to the soft ball stage. Stirring hot syrup can trigger sugar crystals to form, leading to a grainy fondant. Reaching 238°F or 114°C controls how much water remains, which sets the final 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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