Why it works: Peanut and olive match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,027 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓
Salted Peanuts
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the peanuts in boiling water for 1-2 minutes to remove the skins.
Dry the peanuts in a cool oven.
Fry and serve
Heat the olive oil until very hot.
Fry the peanuts in batches, shaking gently until they are delicately browned.
Remove the peanuts with a skimmer or strainer and drain well on blotting paper.
Dust with fine salt and serve.
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.
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Peanut + olivetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,027 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Unroasted peanuts
- Provide the main body of the snack, which toasts and browns as they fry.
- Olive oil
- Conducts heat to brown the peanuts evenly and carries flavour into their surface.
The step that matters
Frying the peanuts in batches. Frying too many peanuts at once drops the oil temperature, so they steam and brown unevenly instead of crisping. Shaking gently keeps them from sticking and burning on one side.
“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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