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Nut Wafers

A sweet wafer made by mixing nuts with fondant and shaping into small pieces.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pecans and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 634 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Nut Wafers

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Mix the chopped nuts with the fondant in a bowl.

  2. Use a spoon to combine until evenly mixed.

Shape and set

  1. Shape the mixture into small wafers.

  2. Allow to set before serving.

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. Pecans + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Walnut + butternuttop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together15 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pecans + butternuttop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Fondant
Sugar base that binds the nuts together and sets firm as it cools.
Pecans
Adds rich flavor and a crisp, chopped texture to the wafers.
Black walnuts
Adds a strong, earthy flavor and crunchy texture.
Shellbarks
Adds a sweet, distinct nut flavor and crunchy texture.
Butternuts
Adds a rich, buttery flavor and crunchy texture.
English walnuts
Adds a mild, slightly bitter flavor and crunchy texture.

The step that matters

Allow to set before serving. Fondant firms as it cools, so the wafers need time to set; serving them too soon leaves them soft and likely to break or smear.

Swap the butternut

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

  1. Brazil nutfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Macadamia nutfits better
  4. Butternutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pecans, 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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