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Dessert

Sugar Nut Candy

A candied mixture of sugar, butter, vinegar, water, and nuts that hardens into brittle candy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,806 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Sugar Nut Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the candy

  1. Combine sugar, butter, vinegar, and water in a thick saucepan.

  2. Cook until the mixture begins to thicken.

  3. Add the nuts and continue cooking.

  4. Drop a small amount into cold water. Check that it is brittle.

  5. Remove from heat.

Shape and set

  1. Pour into buttered plates.

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 + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + nutstop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Vinegar + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

  5. Sugar + nutstop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,228 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

White sugar
Forms the candy base and, when cooked to brittle, sets into a crisp texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender bite to the cooked sugar.
Vinegar
Acid helps keep the sugar smooth by discouraging crystallization.
Hickory nuts
Add crunch and nutty flavor throughout the candy.

The step that matters

Testing for brittleness in cold water. Sugar syrup changes stage as water evaporates, and the drop test shows whether it has reached the brittle stage. Removing it too early leaves a candy that is soft or sticky, and cooking too long can turn it bitter or burnt.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Soybeanfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vinegar, butter. 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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