Why it works: Sugar and nuts are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,228 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Make a Maple Cream
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 242°F (117°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the syrup
Dissolve the maple sugar and common sugar in sufficient water over a good fire.
Add the acetic acid.
Cook to 242°F (117°C).
Pour onto a clean, wet marble surface.
Once bubbling stops, sprinkle with cold water.
Make the cream
Let cool partially.
Turn into cream with a spatula.
When it forms a lump, cover with a damp cloth for 30 minutes.
Knead into a smooth paste.
Reheat slightly.
Mix in the pecan nuts.
Set and cut
Pour into a square loaf in a wooden frame.
Once cold, remove the frame.
Cut into thin strips.
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.
-
Sugar + nutstop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,228 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Maple sugar
- Provides the main sweetness and maple flavour of the cream.
- Common sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps control crystal size in the cooked syrup.
- Pecan nuts
- Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavour to the finished cream.
The step that matters
Cook to 242°F (117°C). The syrup must reach this temperature to set to the right firmness. Stopping early leaves it soft and sticky, while going much higher makes it hard and brittle once cooled.
“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.
More maple cream recipes
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.