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Peanut Candy

A hard candy made from sugar, water, cream of tartar, butter, and peanut kernels.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Peanut Candy

Why it works: Walnut and peanut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Peanut Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Boil sugar and water in a saucepan.

  2. Add cream of tartar dissolved in a little cold water.

  3. Cook until the mixture is brittle when dropped in cold water.

Finish and set

  1. Add the butter and cook for a few more minutes.

  2. Stir in the peanut kernels and pour into buttered pans.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Walnut + peanuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + peanuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,754 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the candy base and, as it cooks, sets into a brittle, crisp texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidic addition that helps prevent sugar from crystallizing, keeping the candy smooth.
Peanut kernels
Add crunch and nutty flavor throughout the set candy.
Butter
Adds richness and a softer flavor to the finished candy.

The step that matters

Cooking until brittle in cold water. Sugar syrup must reach the hard-crack stage to set crisp. Undercooking leaves it sticky, while overcooking can scorch it and give a bitter taste. Testing a small drop in cold water shows when it is ready.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Macadamia nutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

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