Why it works: Peanut and molasses work together. They rank in the top 32% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 115 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Pea-nut Candy
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove shells and skins from the peanuts.
Grease a pan and almost fill it with the peanuts.
Make and set the candy
Pour hot molasses candy over the peanuts when it has boiled sufficiently.
Set the pan in a cool place to harden.
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 + molassestop 32% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together115 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Peanuts
- Provide the bulk and crunchy texture that the candy holds together.
- Molasses
- Supplies the sweetness and dark flavor, and boiling it concentrates the sugars so the candy sets firm.
The step that matters
Boil the molasses until it is sufficiently cooked. Sugar concentration determines how the candy sets. Pouring too early leaves it soft and sticky, while overboiling makes it hard and bitter. Judge by the candy's firmness and color rather than time alone.
“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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