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Dessert

Black Walnut Brittle

A brittle made from black walnuts, sugar, glucose, water, and a pinch of salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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 ↓

Black Walnut Brittle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Chop the black walnuts finely and set aside.

  2. Combine sugar, glucose, and water in a large pot.

Cook the brittle

  1. Cook the mixture until it reaches 290°F (143°C).

  2. Add a pinch of salt.

  3. Stir in the chopped walnuts quickly.

  4. Remove the pot from heat.

Set and store

  1. Pour the mixture onto a slab.

  2. Spread the mixture as thinly as possible.

  3. Once cooled, break the brittle into pieces for storage.

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. Walnut + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Sugar
Forms the crisp, brittle candy structure as it cooks to a hard set.
Glucose
Limits crystallization, keeping the brittle smooth and preventing a grainy texture.
Black walnuts
Add the main nutty flavor and crunchy texture throughout the brittle.

The step that matters

Stir in the chopped walnuts quickly. Once the sugar reaches hard-crack temperature it sets fast, so the walnuts must be folded in promptly and evenly before the mixture hardens on the slab.

“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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