Name: Nut Molasses Candy
Ingredients: molasses; any kind of nuts (e.g., peanuts)

Why it works: Nuts and peanut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Nut Molasses Candy

Ingredients

molasses
any kind of nuts (e.g., peanuts)

Directions

Heat molasses in a saucepan until it thickens.
Add your choice of nuts to the thickened syrup.
Pour the mixture onto buttered baking sheets.
Score the candy into squares before it cools completely.
For peanuts, roast them first and remove the inner skins.

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.

Nuts + peanuttop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together81 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Molasses + nutstop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together206 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Molasses + peanuttop 32% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together115 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).