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Peanut Candy

A sweet candy made with brown sugar, glucose, butter, peanuts, bitter almond extract, and cold water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Peanut Candy

Why it works: Peanut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 305 recipes. Both carry acetylpyrazine, which smells roast. The science ↓

Peanut Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Combine brown sugar, glucose, and cold water in a saucepan.

  2. Boil until a little of the mixture cracks when dropped in cold water.

  3. Stir in butter and shelled peanuts, then remove from heat immediately.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into well-buttered tins.

  2. Mark into squares when almost cold.

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. Peanut + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  2. Corn + peanuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  5. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides the main sweetness and the caramel flavour of the candy.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallisation, keeping the candy smooth rather than grainy.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth texture to the finished candy.
Shelled peanuts
Supply the nutty body and crunch throughout the candy.

The step that matters

Boil to the crack stage. Sugar concentration determines firmness. Boiling too little leaves a soft, sticky candy, while boiling too long makes it hard and brittle. Removing from heat right away prevents over-cooking.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Cashew nutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, corn, almond. 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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