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Dessert

Maple Nougat

A sweet confection made from maple sugar, glucose, egg whites, nuts, and wafer sheets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Maple Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Dissolve the maple sugar and glucose in water.

  2. Cook the mixture to 250°F (121°C).

  3. Remove from heat and let cool on a barrel.

Finish and set

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Fold the beaten egg whites into the cooled mixture until thick and hard to stir.

  3. Add the almonds or pecans and mix well.

  4. Pour the mixture into a box lined with wafer sheets.

  5. Place a wafer sheet on top after pouring the mixture.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. 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

Maple sugar
Provides the main sweetness and flavor, and dissolves to form the syrup base.
Glucose
Helps prevent crystallization so the candy stays smooth and pliable.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airy structure that gives the nougat its light texture.
Almonds or pecans
Add crunch and body, breaking up the chewy mass.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten egg whites into the cooled syrup. The syrup must be cool enough that it does not deflate the whites, yet still thick enough to hold the foam. Folding gently keeps the air that gives nougat its texture.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

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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