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Dessert

Cracker Jack

A caramelized sugar candy with peanuts and popped corn.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Peanut and corn match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 346 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Cracker Jack

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar and glucose to hard crack (320°F or 160°C).

  2. Let the sugar and glucose boil to soft ball stage, then add peanuts.

  3. Boil and stir until peanuts are nearly done.

  4. Add molasses and boil to hard crack.

Coat and shape

  1. Remove from heat and stir in as much popped corn as possible.

  2. Pour onto a clean surface and roll out.

  3. Keep the popped corn warm in the oven to prevent the syrup from cooling too quickly.

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. Peanut + corntop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

  3. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Cream + molassestop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,408 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 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
Provides sweetness and the bulk that sets into a brittle, crisp candy as it cools.
Glucose
Interferes with sugar crystals forming, keeping the syrup smooth and preventing a grainy texture.
Cream of tartar
Adds a little acidity that helps stop the sugar from crystallizing.
Raw spanish peanuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the brittle.
Molasses
Adds deeper flavor and color to the syrup.
Popped corn
Forms the body of the confection, held together by the hardened syrup.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup to hard crack. Sugar syrup sets according to its final temperature. Stopping short leaves the brittle sticky or chewy, while overheating turns it bitter and dark. Pulling it at the right point gives a crisp set.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, molasses, corn. 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.

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