Why it works: Sugar and peanut are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,545 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Peanut Brittle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Break peanuts into pieces or chop them.
Line a greased pan with the peanuts.
Make and set the brittle
Put sugar in a saucepan and heat until it becomes a thin, light brown syrup, stirring constantly.
Pour the syrup over the peanuts.
Mark into squares.
When cool, break into pieces.
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 + peanuttop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,545 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Melts into a syrup that hardens into the brittle's crisp, glassy structure.
- Peanuts
- Provide the crunchy texture and nutty flavour throughout the brittle.
The step that matters
Heating the sugar to a light brown syrup. Sugar darkens quickly once it passes a thin, light brown stage, so it can turn bitter if overheated. Constant stirring prevents hot spots from scorching or crystallizing the syrup before it is poured.
“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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