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Dessert

Peanut Candy

A sweet confection of roasted peanuts coated in melted sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Peanut Candy

Why it works: Peanut and coffee share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 67 recipes. Both carry 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine, which smells roasted, earthy. The science ↓

Peanut Candy

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Roll the shelled and skinned peanuts until fine.

Make the candy

  1. In a saucepan, combine the sugar and heat over medium-high, stirring until melted.

  2. While the sugar melts, heat the peanuts in the oven.

  3. Butter the pans and keep them warm on the back of the stove.

  4. Once the sugar has melted, pour in the hot peanuts and mix well.

  5. Remove from heat and pour the mixture into the buttered pans.

Finish

  1. Allow to cool, then break into pieces.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Peanut + coffeetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together67 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-ethyl-3,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, earthy).

  2. Peanut + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,754 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Coffee + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,442 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Peanuts
Form the bulk of the candy, giving it body and a toasted, nutty flavour.
Granulated sugar
Melts into a syrup that binds the peanuts and sets into a crisp, brittle texture as it cools.

The step that matters

Pouring the mixture into the pans. Once the melted sugar and peanuts are combined, the mixture cools and hardens quickly. Pour it into the buttered pans promptly, before it sets, so it spreads evenly and can be pressed flat.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Cocoafits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Hazelnutfits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coffee, sugar, 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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