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Peanut Butter Candy

A hard candy made from sugar, butter, peanut butter, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peanut Butter Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy base

  1. Cover the white and brown sugar with water in a pot and cook until it reaches the soft ball stage (it strings).

  2. Pour the hot sugar mixture onto a greased marble slab.

Finish the candy

  1. Spread the peanut butter over the hot candy.

  2. Pull the candy until it is smooth, then place it on a dish.

  3. If the candy does not cream, place the dish in a warm oven for a few minutes to help it cream.

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

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

  2. Peanut + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

White sugar
Provides most of the sweetness and the structure that sets as the candy cools.
Brown sugar
Adds moisture and a deeper, caramel-like flavour to the candy.
Peanut butter
Supplies the main flavour and fat, and softens the texture of the finished candy.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar to the soft ball stage. Sugar syrup must reach the right temperature to set correctly. Too little cooking leaves the candy soft and sticky, while too much makes it hard and brittle once cooled.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, vanilla. 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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