Why it works: Meat and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 34% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,866 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Sugared Pecans
Ingredients
Directions
Combine sugar and water in a pot and bring to a boil.
Cook until the mixture thickens.
Pour the syrup over the pecans and stir until cooled.
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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Meat + sugartop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,866 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
- Pecan meats
- Provide the nut base that the sugar syrup coats and sets around.
- Sugar
- Forms the syrup that crystallizes into a crisp, sweet coating on the pecans.
The step that matters
Cooking the syrup until it thickens. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to coat the nuts and set crisp as it cools. Too little cooking leaves the coating sticky, while too much can turn it hard or grainy.
“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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