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Dessert

Mexican Pecan Stacks

A candy made by cooking glucose, Mexican sugar, a sugar, and water to a stiff ball stage, then adding pecans and forming small pyramids.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and pecans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,962 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Mexican Pecan Stacks

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a kettle, combine glucose, Mexican sugar, a sugar, and water.

  2. Cook the mixture to a stiff ball stage at 252°F (122°C).

Coat and shape

  1. Add the pecans to the syrup until it can no longer absorb more.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a well-greased slab.

  3. Roll the mixture into small pyramids, resembling haystacks.

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 + pecanstop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,962 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Glucose
Keeps the syrup from crystallising, giving a smooth, non-grainy texture.
Mexican sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the syrup reach a firm, set candy structure.
A sugar
Provides sweetness and bulk, forming the crystalline body of the syrup.
Pecans
Supply the main body and flavour of the candy, held together by the syrup.

The step that matters

Cook the mixture to a stiff ball stage at 252°F (122°C). Sugar syrup sets according to its final concentration. Stopping short leaves the candy soft and sticky, 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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