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 Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan.
Cook over medium heat until the mixture crackles when tested in cold water.
Set the candy
Fill a tin ½ inch deep with peanuts.
Pour the hot sugar mixture over the peanuts.
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.
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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
- Provides sweetness and, once cooked down, sets hard and brittle as it cools.
- Peanuts
- Provide crunch and a nutty flavor that contrasts with the brittle sugar.
The step that matters
Cook the sugar mixture until it crackles in cold water. Sugar hardens as its water cooks off. Stopping too early leaves the candy soft and sticky, while cooking too long can burn the sugar and make it bitter.
“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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