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Dessert

Burnt Sugar Syrup

A dark caramelized sugar syrup made with sugar, spices, and boiling water, used for cakes and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Burnt Sugar Syrup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a skillet, combine sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

  2. Melt the mixture very slowly, stirring constantly until it turns a very dark color.

  3. Once browned, carefully add the boiling water and boil until all particles are dissolved, about 1-2 minutes.

Store

  1. Transfer to a fruit jar, keep cool, and use for cakes and flavoring.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Granulated sugar
Melts and browns to form the dark, caramel-like flavor and color of the syrup.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the syrup.
Ground nutmeg
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavor to the syrup.
Ground cloves
Adds strong, pungent spice aroma to the syrup.

The step that matters

Melting the sugar slowly. Sugar can go from amber to bitter or burnt quickly. Low heat and constant stirring let it brown evenly, giving a deep flavor without harshness.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Allspicefits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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