Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Maple Nut Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the candy
Combine maple sugar and water in a saucepan.
Boil until the mixture becomes brittle when dropped in cold water.
Just before pouring, stir in the vinegar.
Set the nuts and pour
Butter the pans and line them with prepared nut meats.
Pour the candy mixture over the nuts.
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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Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,806 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,594 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,513 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Vinegar + meattop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,428 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Maple sugar
- Provides the sweet maple flavour and forms the candy base as it cooks down.
- Vinegar
- Adds a slight acidity that helps keep the candy from turning grainy when cooked.
- Nut meats
- Form the crunchy layer that the candy sets over and holds together.
The step that matters
Boil until brittle in cold water. Sugar candy sets according to how far its water has boiled off. Stopping too early leaves it soft and sticky, while going too far makes it hard or scorched. The cold-water test shows when it has reached the right concentration.
“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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