Why it works: Sugar and nuts are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 25% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,228 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Peanut Brittle
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brittle
In a saucepan, stir 2 cups of granulated sugar constantly until it melts and turns golden brown.
Add 2 cups of nuts and mix well.
Pour the mixture into a hot buttered pan.
Cool and break
Crease the surface and let it cool before breaking into pieces.
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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Sugar + nutstop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Granulated sugar
- Melts and caramelizes to form the brittle's crisp, golden, hard candy base.
- Nuts
- Add crunch and a toasted, roasted flavor to the caramel matrix.
The step that matters
Stirring the sugar until golden. Sugar melted over heat can burn quickly once it starts to color. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and prevents scorched, bitter spots, while stopping at golden brown keeps the candy from tasting burnt.
“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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