Skip to main content
Dessert

Peanut Bar

A sweet peanut confection made by cooking glucose, sugar, and water with peanuts, then pressing into bars.

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

Why it works: Sugar and peanut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Peanut Bar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease a slab and place two irons about 12 inches apart.

  2. Set a large sieve made of No. 8 mesh on the irons.

Make the peanut mixture

  1. In a kettle, combine glucose, sugar, and water. Heat and stir until dissolved.

  2. When the mixture reaches 240°F (115°C), remove from heat.

  3. Add peanuts and salt, stirring continuously until peanuts are well done and cracking.

Shape and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into the sieve and let it set for 3 to 4 minutes.

  2. Turn the sieve upside down and scrape the peanuts out.

  3. Mould the mixture between the iron bars set 6 inches apart and roll smooth with a rolling pin.

  4. Allow to cool slightly and cut into 1½ inch wide bars.

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 + peanuttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,545 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

Glucose
Keeps the sugar from crystallising, giving the bar a smooth, chewy texture.
Sugar
Sets into a firm, brittle candy structure and provides sweetness.
No. 1 spanish peanuts
Provide the main body, flavour and crunch of the bar.

The step that matters

Removing the mixture from heat at 240°F (115°C). Sugar syrup hardens as its temperature and water content change. Stopping at the stated temperature controls how firm the bar sets, so overcooking leads to a brittle, hard bar and undercooking leaves it sticky.

“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.

You might also like

Peanut CandyPeanut Candy82 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes