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Dessert

Nut Candy in Sheets

A sugar candy with nuts formed into sheets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Nut Candy in Sheets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a copper pan, combine sugar, water, glucose, and nut butter.

  2. Heat the mixture, stirring until the sugar dissolves, and wash down the sides of the pan to prevent graining.

  3. Cook until the mixture reaches 335°F (170°C).

Set the nut candy

  1. Add the nuts and mix well.

  2. Pour the mixture onto an oiled slab and spread it with a palette knife.

  3. Use a fork to push the nuts into the clear sugar where they are too thick.

  4. Work quickly with a partner before the sugar begins to chill.

  5. Mark the candy into sheets with a large knife.

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 + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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 and sets.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallisation, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
Almonds or other nuts
Provide the bulk, crunch and flavour of the candy.

The step that matters

Washing down the sides of the pan. Sugar crystals clinging to the pan walls can seed graining throughout the syrup, making the candy grainy instead of smooth. Keeping the sides clean while the sugar dissolves helps prevent this.

“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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