Name: How Nougat is Gum Coated
Ingredients: cold syrup; granulated sugar; powdered gum arabic; flour

Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

How Nougat is Gum Coated

Ingredients

cold syrup
granulated sugar
powdered gum arabic
flour

Directions

Wet the nougat centers with cold syrup briefly.
Coat them with granulated sugar to prevent sticking.
Add powdered gum arabic and dust with flour.
Let them revolve in the pan until the coating is dry.
Check dryness by scratching with your fingernail; it should resist.
Use a blower at full force to speed up the drying process.

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.

Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Syrup + flourtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,540 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).