Why it works: Chestnut and sugar work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 647 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Chestnuts Crystallized with White Sugar
Ingredients
Directions
Make a syrup using white sugar and water.
Boil the chestnuts until soft, then peel them carefully.
Skewer each chestnut one at a time.
Dip the chestnut into the syrup, then quickly into cold water.
Remove the chestnut from the skewer and place it in a wire sieve.
Dry the chestnuts in a warm place.
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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Chestnut + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together647 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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