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Dessert

Chop Suey Candy

A sweet candy made from glucose, sugar, cream, fondant, walnuts, and dates.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 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 soft ball stage.

  3. Remove from heat and let set for about 30 minutes.

Finish and shape

  1. Mix in cream fondant to form a thick paste.

  2. Stir in salt and vanilla flavor.

  3. Add broken walnuts and cut dates.

  4. Spoon out onto wax paper in small kisses.

  5. 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
Helps prevent sugar crystallizing, keeping the candy smooth and tender.
Yellow sugar
Provides sweetness and the bulk of the candy's structure once cooked.
Sweet cream or ice cream
Adds fat and richness, softening the texture of the cooked candy.
Cream fondant
Supplies fine sugar crystals that give the paste a creamy, soft body.
Broken english walnuts
Adds crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor contrast to the soft candy.
Cut dates
Adds chewiness and natural sweetness to the candy.

The step that matters

Cooking to 240°F (115°C) soft ball stage. Sugar syrup concentration determines the final texture. Undercooking leaves the candy soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and grainy. Checking the temperature accurately matters.

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.

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