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Mexican Nougat

A nougat made with maple sugar, granulated sugar, glucose, egg whites, cocoa butter, and pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cocoa butter share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 49 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Mexican Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the syrup

  1. Cook the maple sugar, granulated sugar, and glucose to 270°F (132°C).

Whip and set

  1. Slowly add the beaten egg whites and cocoa butter.

  2. Beat the mixture until cool.

  3. Pour onto a slab or into a box.

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 + cocoa buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together49 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Egg + pecanstop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,280 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  4. Sugar + pecanstop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cocoa butter + pecanstop 41% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Maple sugar
Adds sweetness and a distinct maple flavor to the candy.
Granulated sugar
Forms the main sugar structure that sets firm as the candy cools.
Glucose
Helps prevent sugar crystals from forming, keeping the texture smooth.
Egg whites
Trap air when beaten, giving the nougat its light, airy structure.
Cocoa butter
Adds fat that gives the nougat a smooth, rich mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Cook the sugar syrup to 270°F (132°C). The final sugar concentration decides how firm the nougat sets as it cools. Stopping early leaves it soft and sticky, while going too far makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Cashew nutfits about as well
  3. Pecansthe original
  4. Pistachiofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, cocoa butter. 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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