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Dessert

Nut Squares or Tablets

A candied nut mixture made with sugar, glucose, butter, salt, and ground nuts, cooked to a hard caramel consistency.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,594 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Nut Squares or Tablets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 290°F (143°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the mixture

  1. In a large pot, combine sugar, glucose, and water. Cook until the mixture reaches 290°F (143°C).

  2. Add butter and salt, then continue cooking until it reaches 300°F (149°C).

  3. Remove from heat and stir in enough ground nut meats to thicken the mixture.

Shape and serve

  1. Pour the mixture onto a slab and roll it out as thin as possible.

  2. Mark the rolled mixture with a caramel cutter or shape it into a loaf and pass it through tablet rollers.

  3. Enjoy the squares as is, dip them in chocolate, or flavor them with almond, pecan, walnut, or coconut.

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. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + meattop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,866 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 sweet, firm candy base as it cooks to temperature.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer, richer bite and smoother texture.
Ground nut meats
Thicken the cooked mixture so it holds its shape when rolled.

The step that matters

Cooking to the set temperatures. Sugar candy firmness depends on the final temperature reached. Stopping early leaves a soft, sticky result, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

“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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