Why it works: Walnut and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,147 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Walnuts, Wet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the walnuts
Peel the green rind from the walnuts until you reach the white part.
Soak the walnuts in old water.
Boil a pan of water and add the walnuts with the powdered alum.
Blanch the walnuts until a pin can easily pierce them.
Transfer the walnuts to cold water to cool.
Drain the walnuts and place them in an earthen pan.
Make the syrup and candy
Clarify the double-refined sugar and boil it to a little thread.
Let the syrup cool, then pour it over the walnuts.
For five days, drain the syrup and reheat it daily without boiling.
On the fifth day, boil the sugar to the neat pearl stage and pour it over the walnuts again.
Cover the pan and store until ready to dry and use.
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.
-
Walnut + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,147 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Large green walnuts
- Form the candied base; the rind is removed so the sugar syrup can penetrate the white nut.
- Double-refined sugar
- Forms the syrup that candies the walnuts, providing sweetness and a glossy, preserved coating.
- Powdered alum
- Used in the blanching water to firm the walnut flesh so it holds its shape.
The step that matters
Reheating the syrup daily without boiling over five days. Sugar must gradually penetrate the walnuts; boiling the syrup would over-concentrate it and can crystallise or harden the candy, while repeated gentle reheating lets the sugar soak in slowly.
“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 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.