Skip to main content
Dessert

Chop Suey Candy

A sweet candy made with glucose, sugar, cream, fondant, salt, vanilla, walnuts, and dates.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and dates work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 218 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Chop Suey Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy base

  1. In a kettle, combine glucose and yellow sugar.

  2. Add sweet cream or ice cream and cook to 240°F (115°C) or until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  3. Remove from heat and let it sit for about 30 minutes.

Add the fondant and mix-ins

  1. Stir in cream fondant until a thick paste forms.

  2. Add salt and a little vanilla flavor.

  3. Mix in broken walnuts and cut dates.

Shape and set

  1. Spoon out onto wax paper in small kisses and let set.

  2. Once set, stack in pans for serving.

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. Vanilla + datestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Walnut + datestop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together302 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Vanilla + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,730 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and tender rather than grainy.
Yellow sugar
Provides the sweetness and the bulk of the sugar structure that sets as the candy cools.
Sweet cream or ice cream
Adds milk fat and moisture, giving the candy a softer, creamier texture.
Cream fondant
Supplies fine sugar crystals that seed a smooth, thick paste as the candy is worked.
Broken english walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, slightly bitter contrast to the sweet base.
Cut dates
Add chewiness and natural sweetness, contributing moisture and body.

The step that matters

Cook to 240°F (115°C) soft ball stage. Cooking to the correct temperature controls how much water is driven off and therefore the candy's final firmness. Too low gives a soft, sticky result that will not set; too high makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, vanilla, dates):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pecansfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, vanilla, dates. 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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesStuffed DatesStuffed Dates32 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes