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Dessert

Nougat of Almonds

A confection of almonds coated in sugar, baked and molded into nougat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Nougat of Almonds

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Scald the almonds, then remove the skins from the almonds.

  2. Wash the almonds in a napkin and dry the almonds.

  3. Split each almond in half and place the almonds on a baking sheet.

  4. Bake the almonds in a slow oven (300°F / 150°C) until lightly fawn colored.

Make the nougat

  1. Melt the sugar over a slow fire.

  2. Stir the melted sugar with a wooden spoon until dissolved and bubbling.

  3. Quickly add the hot almonds to the melted sugar.

  4. Gently mix the almonds and sugar without breaking the almonds.

  5. Keep the nougat mixture warm near the oven or stove.

Shape and set

  1. Oil a mold with a paste brush and let excess oil drain off the mold.

  2. Drop some nougat onto a slightly oiled baking sheet.

  3. Spread the nougat to 1/8 inch thick using a lemon.

  4. Immediately place the spread nougat into the mold.

  5. Press the nougat into shape with your fingers and the lemon.

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. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Jordan almonds
Provide the main body and crunch of the nougat once baked and mixed into the sugar.
Sifted sugar
Melts and sets into the firm, chewy base that binds the almonds together.

The step that matters

Keep the nougat mixture warm. Once the sugar cools it thickens and stiffens quickly, so the nougat becomes hard to spread and press into the mold. Keeping it warm and shaping it immediately keeps it workable.

“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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