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Dessert

New Orleans Pralines

A sweet confection of pecan nuts coated in a caramelized sugar and butter mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

New Orleans Pralines

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. In a saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, molasses, and cream.

  2. Boil the mixture, stirring constantly, until it forms a soft ball when tested in cold water.

Crystallize and shape

  1. Pour the mixture over the pecan meats and stir until it begins to crystallize.

  2. Drop small bits onto buttered pans using the tip of a spoon.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, 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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness and the caramel flavor that defines the candy.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, rich texture in the cooked mixture.
New orleans molasses
Adds deep flavor and moisture, and helps keep the candy soft.
Cream
Adds moisture and fat, giving the praline a creamy texture.
Pecan meats
Provide the nutty crunch and structure in the finished candy.

The step that matters

Boiling to the soft-ball stage. Sugar concentration determines texture. Stopping before the soft-ball stage leaves the praline runny, while overcooking makes it hard and grainy. Testing in cold water shows when enough water has evaporated.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

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