Why it works: Sugar and molasses 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 ↓
Aunt Ellen's Soda-water
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Boil together sugar, tartaric acid, molasses, sassafras, and boiling water.
Bottle the mixture and cork it well.
Store in a cool, dark place.
Serve
To serve, mix 2 tablespoons of syrup with ½ teaspoon of soda in a glass of water.
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 + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 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
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and body to the syrup.
- Tartaric acid
- Adds sharp acidity and reacts with soda to release fizzing carbon dioxide.
- Molasses
- Adds deep sweetness, dark color, and a rich, earthy flavor.
- Sassafras
- Contributes the characteristic aroma and flavor of the drink.
The step that matters
Mixing the syrup with soda. The acid in the syrup reacts with the soda to release carbon dioxide, which produces the fizz. The bubbles fade over time, so the drink is best mixed and served right away.
“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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