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Dessert

Soft Nougat

A chewy nougat made with honey, sugar, egg whites, almonds, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Honey and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,069 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Soft Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the nougat base

  1. Beat the egg whites to a very stiff froth.

  2. While beating, slowly pour in the hot honey.

  3. In a separate pot, boil 1 lb of sugar with the water to soft ball stage.

  4. Gradually add the boiled sugar to the egg mixture while beating continuously over low heat.

  5. Continue beating until the mixture breaks apart when dropped in cold water.

  6. Add another pound of sugar boiled for glaced fruit, then mix in the almonds.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into shallow pans lined with rice paper.

  2. Cover the top with rice paper and let it cool.

  3. Once cool, cut into strips 1 inch wide.

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. Honey + almondtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Honey + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,932 recipes

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

  5. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff foam that gives the nougat its light, airy structure.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture, and keeps the nougat soft and chewy rather than brittle.
Sugar
Boiled to a syrup that sets into the chewy body of the nougat as it cools.
Blanched almonds
Add texture and bite throughout the nougat.

The step that matters

Continue beating until the mixture breaks apart when dropped in cold water. Stopping too early leaves the candy too soft and sticky to hold its shape, while overcooking the sugar makes it hard and brittle. The cold-water test shows when the sugar has reached the right concentration to set into a tender, chewy nougat.

“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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