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Turkish Cream Nougat

A nougat made with sugar, glucose, egg whites, nuts, and cooked to 255°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Turkish Cream Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Dissolve the sugar and glucose in water and cook to 255°F (124°C).

  2. Remove from heat and stir with a paddle until it becomes a thick cream.

Finish and set

  1. Add the beaten egg whites and stir until the mixture is stiff and heavy.

  2. Fold in the nuts of your choice.

  3. Pour the mixture into a pan or tray lined with paper.

  4. Allow to cool, then cut 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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  2. Egg + walnuttop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,037 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + walnuttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,147 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Forms the sweet, firm body of the nougat as it cooks to a syrup.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the cooked syrup smooth rather than grainy.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they add airy structure that gives the nougat its light, stiff texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the sugar syrup to 255°F (124°C). The syrup's final temperature sets how firm the nougat becomes once cooled. Cooking too little leaves it soft and sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the walnut

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

  1. Pecansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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