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Dessert

Walnut Fondant

A sweet walnut fondant made by boiling sugar, water, and cream of tartar, then adding walnuts and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Walnut Fondant

Ingredients

Directions

Make the fondant

  1. Boil sugar, cream of tartar, and water for 12 minutes.

  2. Check if syrup forms a ball when rubbed between fingers.

  3. Pour fondant onto a greased platter.

  4. Knead fondant until smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Melt fondant in a saucepan over boiling water.

  2. Stir in walnuts and lemon juice.

  3. Pour mixture over the cake.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Walnut + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Cream + walnuttop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Sugar + walnuttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet syrup that sets into the smooth fondant texture.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the syrup, helping prevent sugar crystals from forming and keeping the fondant smooth.
Walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavour to the smooth fondant.

The step that matters

Checking the syrup ball test. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration before it is poured and kneaded. Too little cooking leaves the fondant soft and sticky, while too much makes it hard. Testing by rubbing a drop between the fingers shows when the syrup has reached the correct stage.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, walnut. 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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