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Dessert

Filbert Brittle

A hard candy made from sugar, glucose, water, butter, molasses, and ground filberts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Filbert Brittle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, glucose, and water in a pot.

  2. Cook until the mixture reaches 250°F (120°C).

  3. Add butter and black strap molasses.

  4. Continue cooking until the mixture reaches 289°F (143°C).

  5. Remove from heat.

Add the filberts and set

  1. Pour the mixture into a barrel.

  2. Stir in ground filberts.

  3. Pour the mixture onto a slab.

  4. Spread it as thinly as possible with a palette knife.

  5. Once cooled, turn the batch over.

  6. Break it into pieces.

  7. Place the pieces in pans.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + filberttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + filberttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together143 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Butter + molassestop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the brittle's hard, crisp, glassy structure as the syrup cooks and cools.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallisation, keeping the syrup smooth and the brittle from turning grainy.
Ground filberts
Provide the nutty flavour and body of the brittle, breaking its glassy texture.
Black strap molasses
Adds depth, colour and a mild bittersweet flavour to the syrup.
Butter
Adds fat for richer flavour and a smoother bite in the finished brittle.

The step that matters

Continue cooking until the mixture reaches 289°F (143°C).. Sugar syrup must reach the hard-crack stage to set crisp. Stopping early leaves a sticky, chewy brittle, while overcooking makes it bitter and dark.

Swap the filbert

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Filbertthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, molasses. 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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