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Dessert

White French Nougat

A sweet nougat made with almonds, pistachios, honey, powdered sugar, egg whites, and burned almonds.

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 ↓

White French Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Blanch and dry the almonds and pistachios in a stove.

Make the nougat

  1. In a pan, combine the white honey and powdered sugar; boil until it reaches the crack stage.

  2. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, then mix in the sugar mixture.

  3. Place the mixture over gentle heat and stir until it thickens and can form a ball.

  4. Remove from heat and fold in the almonds, pistachios, and red burned almonds.

Set

  1. Spread the nougat onto a board lined with wafer paper, about 2 inches thick.

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. Almond + honeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pistachio + honeytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together130 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they create the airy, light structure of the nougat.
White honey
Provides sweetness and moisture, and with the sugar forms the chewy body when boiled.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and, when boiled with honey, helps the nougat set firm.
Sweet almonds
Give the nougat its main nutty body and crunchy texture.
Pistachios
Add nutty flavour and a contrasting texture throughout the nougat.

The step that matters

Boiling the honey and sugar to the crack stage. The sugar mixture must reach the crack stage, a high temperature that drives off water. Undercooked syrup leaves the nougat soft and sticky, while overcooked syrup makes it hard and brittle once cooled.

Swap the pistachio

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, honey, sugar, egg. 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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