Skip to main content
Dessert

French Nougat

A sweet confection made from sugar, glucose, egg whites, almonds, and vanilla, cooked to 252°F and cooled into bars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

French Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Dissolve sugar and glucose in water and cook to 252°F (122°C).

Make the nougat

  1. Remove the kettle from heat and beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Stir the hot mixture for a few minutes to cool it down, then add the egg whites and a little vanilla extract.

  3. Beat until the mixture becomes stiff, then fold in the almonds.

Set and cut

  1. Line two 5-pound boxes with wafer paper and fill them with the nougat mixture.

  2. Place a sheet of wafer paper on top and smooth it out.

  3. Set aside for two hours to cool and firm up before cutting into bars.

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 bulk of the syrup that sets into the nougat's firm, chewy structure.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the nougat smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they give the nougat its light, airy texture.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavor that contrasts with the chewy base.

The step that matters

Cooking the syrup to 252°F (122°C). Sugar syrup temperature determines the final firmness once cooled. Undercooked syrup yields a soft, sticky nougat, while overcooked syrup becomes hard and brittle.

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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesAlmond Sponge CakeAlmond Sponge Cake26 recipesAlmond CustardAlmond Custard22 recipesAlmond WafersAlmond Wafers22 recipes