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Dessert

Nougat a LA Parisienne

A nougat made with almonds, pistachios, and sugar, layered and molded.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Nougat a LA Parisienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the nuts

  1. Blanch the almonds.

  2. Wash the almonds.

  3. Dry the almonds.

  4. Split the almonds in half.

  5. Dry the almonds without browning them.

  6. Blanch the pistachios.

  7. Drain the pistachios.

  8. Cut the pistachios into small cubes.

  9. Make granulated sugar pieces the size of the pistachios.

Make the sugar syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine 180 grams of powdered sugar and 1 tablespoon of wood vinegar.

  2. Melt the sugar over low heat, stirring constantly.

  3. Heat the almonds.

  4. Add the almonds to the melted sugar to coat completely.

Layer and set

  1. Sprinkle pistachios and coarse sugar between each layer to form layers of nougat.

  2. Press the layers into the bottom of a mold with a lemon.

  3. Continue layering until the mold is full.

  4. Let it cool.

  5. Unmold and serve.

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. Almond + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  3. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  4. Pistachio + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,233 recipes

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

  5. Almond + vinegartop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together771 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main body and crunch of the nougat.
Pistachios
Add crunch, flavor and color between the layers.
Powdered sugar
Melts into the syrup that coats the nuts and sets them together.
Granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and crunchy pieces between the layers.
Wood vinegar
Its acidity helps keep the cooked sugar from turning grainy.

The step that matters

Melt the sugar over low heat, stirring constantly.. Sugar that heats too fast or unevenly can scorch or crystallize, leaving a bitter or grainy syrup that will not bind the nuts smoothly. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep the syrup even.

Swap the pistachio

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

  1. Pistachiothe original
  2. Cashew nutfits about as well
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Hazelnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, 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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