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Dessert

Peanut Brittle

A sweet brittle made from caramelized sugar, butter, vinegar, and peanuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Peanut Brittle

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, mix Karo syrup, melted butter, vinegar, and brown sugar.

  2. Boil the mixture without stirring until it becomes brittle in cold water.

Assemble the brittle

  1. Place the peanuts in an oiled pan.

  2. Pour the syrup mixture over the peanuts.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

  3. Butter + peanuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,754 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Vinegar + peanuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together443 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Karo syrup
Keeps the sugar smooth and helps prevent crystals, giving a glassy, crisp texture.
Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and molasses flavor, and sets into a hard, brittle candy when cooked.
Melted butter
Adds fat for a tender bite and rich flavor in the candy.
Vinegar
Adds a little acidity that helps keep the sugar from crystallizing.
Peanuts
Supply crunch and nutty flavor throughout the brittle.

The step that matters

Boil without stirring until brittle in cold water. Stirring can trigger sugar crystals that make the candy grainy. The cold-water test shows when the syrup has reached the hard-crack stage; pulled too early it stays sticky, and cooked too long it turns bitter or burnt.

Swap the peanut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (syrup, butter, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against syrup, butter, vinegar, sugar. 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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