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Dessert

Chocolate Walnut Slice

Chocolate walnut slice made from melted caramel scraps, water, cream, cocoa, vanilla, and walnuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cocoa and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 357 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Walnut Slice

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Combine 10 lbs. of scrap and 2 quarts of water in a kettle, heat and stir until dissolved.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Return the strained mixture to the heat.

  4. Cook until it reaches 240°F (soft ball stage), stirring constantly.

  5. Add 1 quart of cream.

  6. Continue cooking until it reaches 256°F or 258°F (good crack stage).

Flavor and shape

  1. Remove from heat.

  2. Stir in cocoa and vanilla to taste.

  3. Pour the mixture onto a greased slab and sprinkle with walnut pieces.

  4. Fold in the edges.

  5. Knead until stiff.

  6. Form into a roll about 3 inches thick.

  7. Roll until almost cold.

  8. Using a sharp knife, cut into slices about ½ inch thick.

  9. Wrap the slices in wax paper.

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. Cocoa + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together357 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Cocoa + walnuttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Cream + walnuttop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

Cream and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 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

Taffy or caramel scrap
Melts into the sugar base that sets into the chewy, firm body of the slice.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, creamier texture to the candy.
Cocoa
Provides the chocolate flavor and the brown color of the slice.
English walnut pieces
Add crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the chewy base.

The step that matters

Cooking to 256°F or 258°F. Sugar candy sets firm only at the right concentration. Stopping early leaves it soft and sticky, while cooking too far makes it hard and brittle. Watch the thermometer closely.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Nutsfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, cocoa, 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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