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Walnut Molasses Candy

A caramelized walnut candy made with molasses, brown sugar, butter, vinegar, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Walnut Molasses Candy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

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

  2. Boil over low heat until the syrup cracks when cooled in cold water.

  3. Add baking soda and remove from heat as it foams.

Set the candy

  1. Pour the mixture over walnuts placed on a greased baking sheet.

  2. Let it cool completely 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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + walnuttop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 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. Walnut + vinegartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

New orleans molasses
Provides the dark color, rich flavor and sweetness of the candy.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the syrup set into a brittle candy.
Vinegar
Adds a little acidity that helps keep the sugar syrup from crystallizing.
Baking soda
Reacts with the hot syrup, creating foam that lightens the candy's texture.
Chopped walnuts
Add crunch and a nutty flavor to the brittle.

The step that matters

Boil until the syrup cracks in cold water. The syrup must reach the hard-crack stage to set into brittle candy. Undercooked syrup stays sticky, while overcooked syrup can taste bitter or burn.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

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