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Dessert

Almond Nougat

A sweet confection made with powdered sugar, egg whites, almonds, candied orange peel, vanilla sugar, and strawberry juice, baked and cut into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and strawberry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,385 recipes. Both carry p-vinylguaiacol, which smells spicy, fruity. The science ↓

Almond Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the mixture

  1. Mix powdered sugar and egg whites in a copper bowl, whipping over a clear fire until thick like batter.

  2. Add chopped almonds, candied orange peel, vanilla sugar, and strawberry juice, and mix well.

Layer and press

  1. Spread the mixture on two pieces of wafer paper, about 1 inch thick.

  2. Cover with two more pieces of paper.

  3. Place a flat tin with a small weight on top to keep level.

Bake and shape

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for a few minutes until nearly dry.

  2. Cut into oblong squares or shape into baskets while still warm.

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. Vanilla + strawberrytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,385 recipes

    Shared aroma: p-vinylguaiacol (spicy, fruity).

  2. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

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

  5. Orange + strawberrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together726 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the whites to add sweetness and body to the mixture.
Blanched almonds
Add bite and texture to the set nougat.
Candied orange peel
Adds citrus aroma and a sweet, chewy flavour.
Vanilla sugar
Adds sweetness and a warm vanilla aroma.

The step that matters

Baking until nearly dry. Heat sets the egg white proteins and sugar firms as moisture leaves, so the nougat becomes a sliceable sheet. Stopping too early leaves it sticky, while baking too long makes it hard and brittle.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Blueberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, almond, vanilla, strawberry. 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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