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Pecan Candy

A sweet confection made from brown sugar syrup, egg white, and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and pecans are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,280 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Pecan Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Mix the light and dark brown sugar with water in a saucepan.

  2. Cook until the syrup threads slightly when dropped from a spoon.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Finish the candy

  1. Pour the syrup into the beaten egg white.

  2. Beat until it can be molded.

  3. Fold in the pecans.

  4. Drop spoonfuls onto a cold platter.

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. Egg + pecanstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,280 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + pecanstop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,962 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Light and dark brown sugar
Provides the sweetness and caramel flavor, and forms the cooked syrup that sets the candy.
Egg white
Whipped to foam, it traps air and gives the candy a light, creamy body.
Pecans
Add crunch and a toasty nutty flavor against the soft sugar base.

The step that matters

Cook the syrup to the threading stage. Sugar syrup sets according to how far its water has cooked off. Stopping too early leaves the candy soft and sticky, while cooking too long makes it hard and grainy once beaten.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Pecansthe original
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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