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Dessert

Honey Nougat

A nougat made with honey, sugar, glucose, egg whites, almonds, and wafer sheets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Honey Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the nougat

  1. Whip the egg whites in a kettle until stiff.

  2. In another kettle, combine honey, sugar, and glucose. Heat and stir until it reaches 260°F (127°C).

  3. Pour the hot mixture over the whipped egg whites while someone beats it with a wooden paddle.

  4. Continue beating until the mixture is stiff, then fold in the almonds.

Set and cut

  1. Pour the mixture into a tray lined with wafer sheets, pressing down tightly with another wafer sheet on top.

  2. The next day, cut into slices about ½ inch thick, 2 inches wide, and 2½ inches long.

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 foam that gives the nougat its light, airy structure.
Honey
Adds sweetness and flavor and keeps the nougat soft and chewy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cooked mixture set firm when cooled.
Glucose
Inhibits crystallization, keeping the nougat smooth and chewy rather than grainy.
Almonds
Add crunch and texture throughout the chewy nougat.

The step that matters

Heating the sugar syrup to 260°F (127°C). The syrup must reach this temperature to cook off enough water so the nougat sets firm after cooling. Undercooked syrup yields a sticky, soft result, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle.

“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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