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Dessert

Glaci Nuts

A sweet confection of nuts and fruit bits cooked in sugar syrup until caramelized.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and brazil nut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 66 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Glaci Nuts

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and just enough water to dissolve it.

  2. Boil the mixture until it reaches the crackle stage.

  3. Drop in the English walnuts, Brazil nuts, and any fruit you prefer.

  4. Remove from heat immediately and place on buttered plates to cool.

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. Walnut + brazil nuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Orange + pineappletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Brazil nut + orangetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Walnut + orangetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Walnut + pineappletop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together465 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Dissolves in water and hardens into a brittle, crisp candy coating as it cooks.
English walnuts
Add crunch and a toasty, nutty flavor that contrasts with the sweet coating.
Brazil nuts
Add rich, buttery crunch and bulk to the candied mix.

The step that matters

Remove from heat immediately at the crackle stage. Sugar syrup darkens and turns bitter quickly once it passes the crackle stage, so pulling it off the heat at the right moment keeps the candy light in color and flavor.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, walnut, brazil nut, orange):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, walnut, brazil nut, orange. 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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