Skip to main content
Dessert

Peanut Candy

A candy made by boiling sugar, water, cream of tartar, and butter, then pouring over peanuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Peanut Candy

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Peanut Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar and water in a pot.

  2. Dissolve cream of tartar in a little cold water and add to the pot.

  3. Boil until the mixture becomes brittle when dropped into cold water.

  4. Add butter and boil for a few more minutes.

Pour and set

  1. Pour the mixture over the peanuts spread in a buttered tin.

  2. Set aside 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Cream + spreadtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together96 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + spreadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together260 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the candy base and, cooked to hardness, sets into a brittle texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidity helps prevent sugar from crystallizing, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the candy a softer bite and smoother flavor.
Peanuts
Provide the nutty flavor and crunch suspended throughout the set candy.

The step that matters

Boil until brittle in cold water. Sugar must reach the hard-crack stage for the candy to set firm. Stopping early leaves it sticky, while overcooking can scorch it and taste bitter.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, butter, spread. 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.

You might also like

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes