Skip to main content
Dessert

Everton Taffy

A candy made by boiling sugar, butter, vinegar, and water, then coating almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Everton Taffy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and split the almonds.

  2. Spread them on two large buttered dishes.

Make the candy and pour

  1. Boil the sugar, butter, vinegar, and water together for about 20 minutes without stirring.

  2. Shake gently to mix.

  3. Test the candy by dropping a bit into cold water; it should set hard and brittle.

  4. Pour the candy over the almonds, just enough to cover them.

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. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Butter + vinegartop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Brown sugar
Provides the sweetness and, once boiled, the hard brittle structure of the candy.
Fresh butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender bite in the finished candy.
Vinegar
Its acid helps keep the sugar from crystallising, giving a smoother candy.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavour that contrast with the brittle candy.

The step that matters

Testing the candy in cold water. Sugar syrup hardens as its temperature rises, so a drop in cold water shows whether it has cooked enough. Undercooked candy stays soft and sticky, while overcooked candy turns bitter and burnt.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Sesamefits about as well
  3. Soybeanfits about as well
  4. Peanutfits less well

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

You might also like

Almond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipesCoconut Almond CakeCoconut Almond Cake17 recipes