Cotton candy: A gastrophysical investigation

Abstract

The first mechanical device for making cotton candy, sometimes referred to as candy floss in the UK and New Zealand, and fairy floss in Australia, was patented in North America in the closing years of the 19th century. Ever since, this popular technique for transforming a simple base ingredient into a much more voluminous spun sugar confection (often with the addition of food colouring and flavouring) has been a popular staple treat for children in many parts of the world at fairgrounds, funfairs, and the seaside. Intriguingly, however, this (in a sense) early molecular gastronomy, or modernist cooking technique (involving, as it does, the radical transformation of an ingredient) has, until recently, remained firmly in the category of ‘entertainment’ food. As such, the particular texture/appearance of this confection tends to be uniquely connected in many people's minds to childhood pleasure hence perhaps also triggering nostalgic thoughts. In recent decades, a number of famous chefs, such as Ferran Adrià and José Andres, have started to incorporate cotton candy into some of their sweet (and, on occasion, savoury) culinary creations. Here, we describe a novel amuse bouche, called ‘A study in white’, in which four differently-shaped/textured colourless white edible bites were served to diners in a restaurant setting. In this case, the latter were encouraged to try and determine which of the four so-called basic tastes (sweet, sour, bitter, or salty) they would associate with each texture/shape in the absence of any other sensory cue. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the chef chose cotton candy as the most unambiguous textural cue to connote sweetness, a cue that many of the diners immediately picked-up on. A follow-up online cross-cultural study revealed that both Spanish- and English-speaking participants (N = 339) associated candy floss more strongly with sweetness than even something that looked like a sugar cube.