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Dessert

Caramel Nougat

A caramel nougat made with sugar, sweet cream, cream of tartar, candied cherries, nuts, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Caramel Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a small loaf pan with waxed or buttered paper.

Cook the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar and part of the cream and bring to a boil.

  2. Add cream of tartar and let it boil down a little.

  3. Stir in the remaining cream and boil until it reaches a medium ball stage, stirring continuously while boiling.

Thicken and set

  1. Remove from heat and stir, rubbing the sides of the kettle until it starts to thicken.

  2. Add the candied cherries and nuts, then pour into the prepared pan.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  4. Cream + meattop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,248 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Meat + vanillatop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together331 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Provides sweetness and, once boiled, the firm structure of the candy.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving the nougat a softer, creamier bite.
Cream of tartar
Its mild acidity helps keep the sugar syrup smooth and prevents grainy crystals.
Candied cherries and nut meats
Add chewy texture and contrast to the soft, set nougat.
Vanilla
Adds a warm aroma that rounds out the sweetness.

The step that matters

Boil to the medium ball stage. Stopping the boil too early leaves the nougat soft and sticky, while going too far makes it hard. The syrup's temperature at this stage controls how firm the nougat sets as it cools.

“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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