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Dessert

Imitation Fruit Nougat

A confection made by cooking sugar, glucose, and albumen, then adding cocoa butter, paraffin, and fruit gums.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cocoa butter share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 49 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Imitation Fruit Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Dissolve sugar and glucose in water.

  2. Cook to 250°F (121°C).

Combine with albumen

  1. Pour one-quarter of the mixture in a thin stream over the well-beaten albumen.

  2. Cook the remaining mixture to 270°F (132°C).

  3. Pour one-half over the albumen mixture in a thin stream.

  4. Cook again to 285°F (140°C).

  5. Pour all into the albumen mixture in a thin stream.

Finish and set

  1. Add melted cocoa butter and paraffin.

  2. Flavor to taste.

  3. Stir well.

  4. Pour into wafer-lined trays.

  5. Spread on a slab.

  6. Cut and wrap.

  7. Dip in chocolate.

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 + cocoa buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together49 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Albumen
Whipped egg white that traps air and gives the nougat its light, foamy structure.
Sugar
Provides sweetness and, once cooked, the firm body that sets the nougat.
Glucose
Inhibits sugar crystallisation, keeping the nougat smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
Cocoa butter
Adds fat that gives a smooth mouthfeel and a tender bite.
Red a. b. gums
Gum base that adds body and chewiness to the nougat.
White a. b. gums
Gum base that adds body and chewiness to the nougat.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup in a thin stream. Pouring slowly while beating the albumen lets the hot sugar cook the egg white gradually and fold in air evenly. Pouring too fast can deflate the foam or scramble the albumen.

“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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