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Peanut Candy

A sweet confection made from brown sugar, cream, butter, ground peanuts, and flavoring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Peanut Candy

Why it works: Walnut and peanut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 241 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Peanut Candy

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a pot, combine the light brown sugar and enough cream to moisten well.

  2. Add the butter and mix until combined.

  3. Boil the mixture, stirring constantly, until it barely sounds or cracks against the kettle.

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the ground peanuts and flavoring.

  5. Continue stirring until the mixture begins to grain.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Walnut + peanuttop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together241 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + peanuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,754 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Light brown sugar
Provides the bulk of the candy and its sweet, caramel-like flavor.
Cream
Moistens the sugar so it dissolves evenly and yields a creamier texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smoother, richer texture and flavor.
Peanuts
Supply the main body, nutty flavor and texture of the candy.

The step that matters

Boiling until it barely cracks against the kettle. Sugar candy sets according to its temperature; boiling too little leaves it soft and sticky, while boiling too long makes it hard and brittle. Stirring during the boil keeps the sugar from scorching on the bottom of the pot.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Macadamia nutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, butter, walnut. 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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