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Dessert

Peanut Butter Cups

A confection made by cooking peanut butter with sugar, water, and burnt sugar color, then forming and cutting into cups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Peanut Butter Cups

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sugar base

  1. Heat peanut butter in a double boiler.

  2. Combine sugar, cream of tartar, and water in a kettle.

  3. Set the kettle on fire and mix.

  4. When boiling, remove the paddle.

  5. Wash the sides of the kettle with a wet brush.

  6. Cover the kettle and steam for a few minutes.

  7. Remove the cover.

  8. Insert a thermometer and cook to 335°F (170°C).

  9. Add burnt sugar color and boil well.

Pull and shape

  1. Pour the mixture onto a greased slab.

  2. Knead the mixture with gloves until stiff and shiny.

  3. Add vanilla while pulling the mixture.

  4. Form the mixture into a flat square about 16 inches on each side.

  5. Spread peanut butter on the batch.

  6. Roll the mixture up.

  7. Seal both ends.

  8. Pull the roll to the size of your finger.

  9. Cut using a butter‑cup cutter.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

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

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

  4. Peanut + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Sugar
Forms the sweet, crystalline base that sets firm as the mixture cools and is pulled.
Peanut butter
Provides the nutty flavour and fat that give the filling its rich texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent sugar from crystallising into grainy texture.

The step that matters

Cook to 335°F (170°C). Sugar syrup must reach the correct temperature to set firm enough to pull and shape. Undercooked syrup stays sticky, while overcooked syrup turns hard and brittle.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

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