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Dessert

Butternut and Almond Candy

A sweet candy made from butternut or almond meal, water, sugar, and egg whites, baked into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Butternut and Almond Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy base

  1. Combine the butternut meal and water in a pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the sugar.

  4. Stir constantly until dissolved and the mixture thickens to a honey‑like consistency.

  5. Gradually add the beaten egg whites while stirring continuously until the mixture is no longer sticky.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into a pan dusted with cornstarch.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Cut into small squares.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Butternut + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together59 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Butternut + eggtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together36 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Butternut meal
Provides the bulk and nutty flavour that forms the candy's body.
Refined sugar
Sweetens the candy and, as it dissolves, thickens the mixture to a honey-like texture.
Egg whites
Add structure and body, helping the mixture firm up as it sets.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites. Egg whites must be added gradually while stirring constantly; adding them too fast can cause them to cook into lumps instead of blending smoothly into the hot mixture.

Swap the butternut

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

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Butternutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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