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Dessert

Peanut Candy

A sweet confection made from sugar, molasses, water, vinegar, peanuts, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Peanut Candy

Why it works: Coffee and peanut 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

Make the candy

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, molasses, water, and vinegar.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the mixture hardens when dropped into cold water.

Finish and set

  1. Stir in chopped peanuts and butter to taste.

  2. Pour the mixture onto a greased surface and let it cool before cutting 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. Coffee + peanuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together67 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Butter + peanuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,754 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + peanuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together443 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, when cooked, forms the hard brittle structure of the candy.
Molasses
Adds depth of flavour and colour, and keeps the candy slightly chewy as it cooks.
Vinegar
Acidity helps prevent sugar from crystallising too early, keeping the candy smooth.
Chopped peanuts
Add crunch and nutty flavour throughout the candy.

The step that matters

Cooking to the hard-crack stage. Sugar syrup must reach the hard-crack stage, when it hardens in cold water. Stopping early leaves a sticky candy that will not set firm, while overcooking makes it bitter and brittle.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Cocoafits about as well
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Peanutthe original
  4. Hazelnutfits about as well

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