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Cocoanut-nut-caramels

A caramel confection made with glucose, molasses, coconut, walnuts, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 606 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Cocoanut-nut-caramels

Ingredients

Directions

Make the caramel base

  1. In a kettle, combine glucose, molasses, shredded coconut, and water.

  2. Heat over medium, stirring continuously until a small amount forms a soft ball in cold water.

Shape the caramels

  1. Remove from heat and stir in broken walnuts and enough shredded coconut to absorb the mixture.

  2. Roll out the mixture to a thickness suitable for caramels.

  3. Once cooled, cut into squares and place on edge to display the nuts.

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. Coconut + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together606 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Molasses + walnuttop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together560 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + coconuttop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together96 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

Glucose
Adds sweetness and body while resisting crystallization, giving a smooth, chewy texture.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor, color, and sweetness to the caramel.
Shredded coconut
Adds texture and absorbs the cooked syrup so the mixture can be shaped.
Broken walnuts
Add crunch and nutty flavor throughout the caramel.

The step that matters

Cooking to the soft-ball stage. Sugar syrup firms as its temperature rises and water boils off. Stopping at the soft-ball point gives a chewy caramel; undercooking leaves it too soft to hold its shape, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle. Constant stirring prevents scorching on the bottom of the kettle.

Swap the coconut

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Datesfits about as well
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, walnut. 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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