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Dessert

Turkish Nougat

A sweet confection made from sugar syrup, egg whites, almonds, candied cherries, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Turkish Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. In a saucepan, combine sugar, glucose, and water. Boil until it reaches 258°F (125°C) or a light soft crack stage.

  2. While the syrup is boiling, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Make the nougat

  1. Remove the syrup from heat and pour it in a fine stream over the beaten egg whites, stirring continuously.

  2. Continue to beat the mixture until it starts to set.

  3. Fold in the vanilla, almonds, and candied cherries.

  4. Transfer the nougat to a greased bowl and let it cool.

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 + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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
Forms the syrup that sets into the chewy body of the nougat.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallisation, keeping the nougat smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the nougat its light, airy structure.
Almonds
Add crunch and texture that contrasts with the chewy base.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be poured in a fine, steady stream while whisking continuously. Pouring too fast or stopping the beating lets the syrup cook the egg whites unevenly or deflate the foam, and the nougat loses its airy structure.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits less well
  4. Macadamia nutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, vanilla. 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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