Name: Peanut Crisp
Ingredients: 3 lbs. sugar; 2 lbs. glucose; 1 qt. water; 2¼ lbs. blanched peanuts; pinch of salt; 1 tablespoon baking soda

Why it works: Sugar and peanut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Peanut Crisp

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

Combine sugar, glucose, and water in a large pot.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches 240°F (115°C).

Add the peanuts and soda

Add the blanched peanuts and continue cooking until the nuts are done.
Stir in a pinch of salt and add the baking soda. Mix well.

Shape and stretch

Pour the mixture onto a slab and use a spatula to work it into a pile.
Continue working the mixture until you can form it into a loaf.
Cut off about 2 lbs. at a time and roll it out as thin as possible with a wooden rolling pin.
Turn over the rolled piece and stretch it thin.
Repeat until all the mixture is used.

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.

Sugar + peanuttop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,545 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

Sugar: Forms the brittle candy base and sets crisp as the syrup cools.
Glucose: Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and glassy rather than grainy.
Blanched peanuts: Provide the nutty flavor and crunchy texture in the finished candy.
Baking soda: Aerates the hot syrup when stirred in, lightening the texture and making it easier to stretch.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 240°F (115°C). Stopping at the right temperature controls how much water remains. Too little cooking leaves the candy sticky and soft; too much makes it brittle and prone to burning, so the temperature must be followed closely.

“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.