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Dessert

Pepper Nuts

A sweet and spiced nut mixture baked into a dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pepper Nuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Stir together the sifted sugar and eggs for one hour.

  2. Add the juice and rind of the lemons, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, baking powder, raisins, and chopped nuts.

  3. Mix in enough flour to form a dough that is not too stiff.

Add the brown sugar mixture

  1. In a separate bowl, cream together the brown sugar and butter.

  2. Add the chopped walnuts, chopped raisins, cinnamon, flour, and dissolved baking soda.

  3. Incorporate the well-beaten eggs and cloves into the mixture.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto buttered baking sheets.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the dough and adds bulk and tenderness to the batter.
Baking soda
Reacts with the dough's acidity to produce gas, helping the cookies rise and spread.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a toasted, nutty flavor that contrasts the soft dough.
Lemon juice and rind
Add acidity and aroma, brightening the sweet spiced dough.

The step that matters

Add the baking soda dissolved in warm water. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved and evenly mixed into the dough so it reacts uniformly; clumps can leave bitter spots and uneven rising.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, raisin):

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Orangefits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg, raisin. 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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