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Dessert

Nut Nougat

A sweet confection made from sugar, corn syrup, water, egg whites, and nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Nut Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and water in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then let it boil until it forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water.

Finish the nougat

  1. When the mixture thickens, slowly pour it into the beaten egg whites while beating until thick.

  2. Add the broken nuts and any desired flavoring.

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 + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Corn + nutstop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together104 recipes

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

  3. Corn + syruptop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,678 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  5. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 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

Granulated sugar
Forms the syrup base that sets into the chewy candy structure as it cooks.
Corn syrup
Prevents sugar crystals from forming, keeping the nougat smooth and tender.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they trap air and give the nougat its light, airy texture.
Broken nuts
Add crunch and body to the chewy candy.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup into the egg whites. The syrup must be added slowly while beating. Pouring too fast can deflate the foam or cook the whites unevenly, and the syrup should be at the right stage so the candy sets properly.

Swap the nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Beansfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, corn, syrup, 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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