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Molasses Taffy

Molasses taffy is a chewy candy made from molasses, sugar, butter, and optionally nuts, boiled to a brittle consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar 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 ↓

Molasses Taffy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine molasses, sugar, and butter in a pot.

  2. Boil until nearly at the brittle point.

  3. If using, add nuts and then the baking soda.

  4. Test for brittleness by dropping into cold water; continue boiling if not brittle.

  5. Pour into buttered plates to cool.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + nutstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the dark color, deep flavor, and sweetness that define the taffy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it cooks, helps set the candy firm and brittle.
Butter
Adds richness and a softer bite, and helps keep the candy from sticking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the hot syrup to create bubbles, lightening the texture of the candy.

The step that matters

Testing for brittleness. Cooking the syrup to the right point decides whether the taffy sets hard and brittle or stays chewy and sticky. Dropping a little into cold water shows whether it has reached that stage, so the cook knows when to stop boiling.

Swap the nuts

The recipe marks nuts as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, egg, butter):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, egg, butter. 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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