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Dessert

French Nougat

A nougat made with egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, water, and mixed nuts and dried fruit.

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 ↓

French Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, corn syrup, and warm water in a saucepan; boil until it threads.

  2. Continue boiling the remaining syrup until it forms a hard glassy ball when dropped into water.

Make the nougat

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Slowly pour half of the syrup mixture into the beaten egg whites while whipping continuously.

  3. Add the boiled syrup to the egg whites and beat until almost hard.

  4. Fold in the mixed fruit.

  5. Drop spoonfuls onto oiled paper and wrap when cooled.

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. Mixed nuts + raisintop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together12 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Corn + mixed nutstop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Sugar + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Corn + raisintop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together180 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 airy, light structure.
Sugar
Boiled into syrup that sets firm and glassy as it cools, giving the candy its chew.
Corn syrup
Interferes with sugar crystallisation, keeping the nougat smooth rather than grainy.
Mixed nuts, candied cherries, raisins, and citron
Add chewy texture and fruity sweetness throughout the candy.

The step that matters

Boiling the second batch of syrup to hard-ball stage. The syrup must reach the correct high temperature to set firm once cooled. Under-boiled syrup leaves the nougat soft and sticky, while over-boiled syrup makes it brittle.

Swap the mixed nuts

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Mixed nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, corn, syrup, raisin. 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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