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Dessert

Nougat of Almonds a LA Chantilly

A nougat made with almonds, butter, sugar, and lemon juice, shaped into a dome and molded.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Nougat of Almonds a LA Chantilly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Butter a baking sheet and set aside.

Make the nougat

  1. In a copper bowl, stir the sugar over high heat until melted.

  2. Add lemon juice to the melted sugar and mix well.

  3. Gently stir in the hot almonds until combined.

Shape the dome

  1. Spread some nougat on the buttered baking sheet to form a thin round piece for the dome.

  2. Cut out another round piece for the bottom of the mould.

  3. Cut a smaller round piece, about 2 inches in diameter, and set aside.

  4. Form two pieces of nougat to fit around the mould.

  5. Butter your hands and quickly press one piece into the mould.

  6. Join the second piece to the first and press them together with a buttered rolling pin.

  7. Level the top edge with a knife and remove the dome before it cools.

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. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Melts to form the caramel base that sets the nougat's structure and sweetness.
Almonds
Provide the nutty flavour and crunchy texture within the set nougat.
Butter
Adds richness and keeps the nougat from sticking to the sheet and hands.

The step that matters

Remove the dome before it cools. Nougat hardens quickly as sugar cools, so it becomes brittle and hard to shape. Shaping and removing the dome while it is still warm keeps it workable and prevents cracking.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, almond. 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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