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Dessert

Divinity Candy

A sweet candy made with sugar, corn syrup, egg whites, vanilla, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Divinity Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Mix water and corn syrup in a saucepan.

  2. Pour the syrup mixture over the granulated sugar.

  3. Beat for 1 minute, then cook on low heat until it cracks in water.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool.

Whip and set

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Pour the cooled syrup over the beaten egg whites and beat until combined.

  3. Add vanilla extract and mix well.

  4. Fold in the nut kernels.

  5. When the mixture is stiff, pour it onto a buttered pan.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Syrup + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Corn + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Provides the main sweetness and forms the crystalline base of the candy.
Corn syrup
Interferes with sugar crystallization, keeping the candy smooth and tender rather than grainy.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam to give the candy its light, airy, fluffy structure.
Nut kernels
Add crunch and texture contrast to the soft, airy candy.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to the crack stage. The syrup must reach the hard-crack point, which is sensitive to heat. Undercooking leaves the candy soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it brittle and grainy. Cooling before mixing keeps the cooked syrup from deflating the beaten whites.

“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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