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Dessert

Candy Pudding

A sweet candy made from sugar, vinegar, water, baking soda, coconut, raisins, almonds, and pecans, set into a firm ball and coated with chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Candy Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Combine sugar, vinegar, water, and baking soda in a saucepan.

  2. Cook over low heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is blended.

  3. Increase heat and cook until the mixture becomes brittle in cold water.

  4. Pour the mixture onto a greased marble surface.

  5. Once it cools slightly, pull it like taffy until light.

Shape and serve

  1. Incorporate grated coconut, raisins, almonds, and pecans into the mixture.

  2. Form into a ball and place in a mold lined with oiled paper.

  3. Serve on a platter and cover with melted chocolate.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  3. Coconut + pecanstop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together394 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Almond + pecanstop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together431 recipes

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

  5. Pecans + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 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

Granulated sugar
Forms the sweet candy base that sets firm as it cools.
Vinegar
Acidity helps keep the sugar from recrystallizing, giving a smoother candy.
Grated coconut
Adds moisture, chew and tropical flavour to the candy.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness.
Almonds
Add crunch and a toasted nutty flavour.
Pecans
Add crunch and rich, buttery nut flavour.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar to brittle stage. Sugar must reach the hard-crack point, shown by brittleness in cold water. Undercooking leaves a soft, sticky candy that will not hold its shape, while overcooking can turn it bitter or burnt.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vinegar, coconut, almond, pecans, chocolate):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, coconut, almond, pecans, chocolate. 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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