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 candy
Combine sugar in a porcelain kettle and stir constantly until dissolved.
Add chopped peanuts and mix well.
Immediately pour the mixture into a buttered dish.
Cool and cut
Allow to cool, then cut into squares.
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
- White sugar
- Melts into a syrup that hardens as it cools, giving the candy its sweetness and firm structure.
- Chopped peanuts
- Adds crunch and a nutty flavor throughout the candy.
The step that matters
Pour immediately after mixing in the peanuts. Sugar syrup begins to set as it cools and thickens. If it sits too long, it becomes too stiff to spread evenly in the buttered dish, so the candy should be poured right away.
“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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