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Dessert

Fruit Nougat

A confection made by layering chopped fruit in a buttered pan and coating with melted sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Dates and fig work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 318 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. The science ↓

Fruit Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut dates, figs, raisins, and any candied fruits into small pieces.

  2. Arrange the fruit pieces in alternate layers in a buttered shallow pan.

Make and set the nougat

  1. In a pan over high heat, melt 2 cups of granulated sugar, stirring constantly.

  2. Pour the melted sugar over the fruits slowly and evenly, just enough to hold them together.

  3. Before the mixture cools, cut it into small bars.

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. Dates + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  2. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  3. Dates + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together358 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

  5. Fig + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,042 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Granulated sugar
Melts to a binding syrup that holds the fruit pieces together as it cools.
Dates
Provide sweetness and chewy body to the nougat.
Figs
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the layers.
Raisins
Add chewiness and concentrated sweetness throughout the bars.

The step that matters

Cutting before the mixture cools. Melted sugar hardens quickly as it cools, becoming brittle and difficult to cut cleanly. Cutting while it is still warm and pliable gives neat bars and prevents cracking.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, dates, fig, butter. 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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