Why it works: Nuts and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,228 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Peanut Brittle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare and finely chop the nuts.
Make and set the brittle
In a saucepan over low heat, combine the sugar without water.
Stir until the sugar is completely melted.
Add the nuts and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a well-buttered pan.
Before it cools, score into squares using a knife dipped in cold water.
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.
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Nuts + sugartop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,228 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Nuts
- Add crunch and nutty flavor, and give the brittle its texture.
- Sugar
- Melts into a clear syrup that hardens as it cools, forming the brittle's crisp structure and sweetness.
The step that matters
Score the brittle before it cools. Sugar sets hard as it cools, so it becomes brittle and hard to cut. Scoring while it is still pliable keeps the squares clean, and a knife dipped in cold water helps stop the hot sugar from sticking.
“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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