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Dessert

Walnut Brittle

A sweet, crunchy confection made from sugar, glucose, molasses, walnuts, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Walnut Brittle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the brittle

  1. In a large pot, combine granulated sugar, glucose, and molasses.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the mixture reaches 310°F (154°C) or until it becomes brittle.

  3. Remove from heat and quickly stir in the walnuts and baking soda.

Set and break

  1. Pour the mixture onto a greased surface and let it cool before breaking into pieces.

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 + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + walnuttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Granulated sugar
Forms the crisp, brittle structure as it cooks to a hard candy.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and glassy rather than grainy.
Molasses
Adds deep flavor and color, and some moisture that softens the set candy slightly.
Walnuts
Provide crunchy texture and a toasty, nutty flavor throughout the brittle.
Baking soda
Reacts with the hot sugar mixture to release gas, making the brittle light and airy.

The step that matters

Removing from heat and stirring in the baking soda. Baking soda must be added quickly once the sugar is off the heat, because it reacts immediately and foams. Delay lets the mixture cool and thicken, so the soda will not disperse evenly and the brittle may turn dense or patchy.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses. 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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