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Dessert

Peanut Bar

A sweet bar made from glucose, sugar, water, Spanish peanuts, and salt, cooked and molded between iron bars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and peanut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Peanut Bar

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Grease a slab and place two irons 12 inches apart.

  2. Set a large sieve made of No. 8 mesh on the irons.

Make the peanut mixture

  1. Combine glucose, sugar, and water in a kettle.

  2. Heat and stir until dissolved.

  3. When the mixture reaches 240°F (115°C), remove from heat.

  4. Add peanuts and salt, stirring continuously until peanuts are well done and cracking.

  5. Pour the mixture into the sieve and let it set for 3 to 4 minutes.

  6. Turn the sieve upside down and scrape the peanuts out.

Shape and cut

  1. Mould the mixture between the iron bars set 6 inches apart and roll smooth with a rolling pin.

  2. Allow to cool slightly, then cut into 1½-inch wide bars.

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 + peanuttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Glucose
Dissolves into the syrup to give a smooth, sweet base that resists crystallising.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps it set firm as it cools.
Spanish peanuts
Form the bulk of the bar, providing crunch and nutty flavour once cooked in the syrup.

The step that matters

Removing the syrup at 240°F (115°C). At this temperature the sugar concentration sets the texture of the bar when it cools. Pulling it off heat too early leaves the bars soft and sticky, while going too far makes them 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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