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Dessert

Mississippi Pecan Candy

A sweet candy made from sugar, cream, butter, cocoa, vanilla, and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cocoa and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 357 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Mississippi Pecan Candy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a kettle, mix the sugar, cream, butter, and cocoa.

  2. Place over high heat, stirring constantly.

  3. When it boils for 2 to 3 minutes, test in cold water.

  4. When a soft ball forms, remove from heat.

  5. Flavor with vanilla.

  6. Beat until creamy.

  7. Stir in the pecans.

  8. Pour onto buttered tins.

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. Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Walnut + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Pulverized sugar
Provides the sweet base that sets into a fudge-like candy as it cools.
Cream
Adds fat and moisture, giving the candy a smooth, soft texture.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the candy tender and smooth-textured.
Cocoa
Adds chocolate flavor and color to the candy.
Pecan meats
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor against the soft candy.

The step that matters

Beat until creamy. Beating while the sugar mixture cools causes it to crystallize into many tiny crystals, producing a creamy, smooth texture. Pouring or stirring in pecans too early, or beating too long after it thickens, can make the candy grainy or hard to pour.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, butter, cocoa, vanilla, meat):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Nutsfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, butter, cocoa, vanilla, meat. 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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