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Peanut Candy

Peanut candy is a sweet treat made from molasses, sugar, butter, and peanuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Peanut Candy

Why it works: Molasses and sugar 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 ↓

Peanut Candy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine molasses, sugar, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the mixture for a long time until it hardens quickly when dropped in a saucer.

  3. Stir in the peanuts.

  4. Pour the mixture into a buttered pan and let it 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.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides dark color, deep flavor, and a chewy texture as it cooks down.
Sugar
Sweetens the candy and helps it set firm as the mixture cooks and cools.
Butter
Adds richness and a smoother texture to the candy.
Peanuts
Add crunch and nutty flavor throughout the candy.

The step that matters

Boil until it hardens in cold water. The mixture must reach the right sugar concentration to set firm when cooled. Boiling too briefly leaves it soft and sticky, while boiling too long can make it brittle or burnt.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Walnutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, egg, butter. 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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