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Dessert

Nougat

A sweet confection made with orange‑flower water, honey, egg whites, almonds, filberts, pistachios, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Nougat

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the honey paste

  1. Combine orange-flower water and honey in a saucepan and boil until it reaches the ball degree.

  2. Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks.

  3. Add almonds and caster sugar to the egg whites, then mix with the honey to form a smooth paste.

  4. Spread the paste on a sheet of wafer paper to about ½ inch thick.

  5. Cover with another sheet of wafer paper and place a board on top with a weight.

  6. Once cool, cut into shapes.

Add the filberts and finish

  1. Blanch filberts, halve them, and place on a baking sheet; slightly color them.

  2. Heat sugar in a boiler until it caramelizes.

  3. Stir in the filberts, ensuring they are evenly coated.

  4. Quickly turn the mixture onto a well-buttered baking sheet, spreading it out.

  5. Dust with sugar and chopped pistachios.

  6. When cool, cut into desired shapes.

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 + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  3. Orange + pistachiotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  5. Filbert + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Honey
Provides sweetness and a chewy texture once boiled and cooled.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they add airy structure to the paste.
Almonds
Give body and a firm, chewy bite to the nougat.
Filberts
Add crunch and a toasted, nutty flavour.
Caster sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the paste hold together.
Sugar
Caramelizes to a glossy, sweet coating for the filberts.

The step that matters

Boiling the honey to the ball degree. The honey syrup's final temperature sets the nougat's texture. Too little boiling leaves it soft and sticky, while too much makes it hard and brittle once cool.

Swap the filbert

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, honey, egg, almond, sugar, butter, pistachio):

  1. Cashew nutfits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Brazil nutfits better
  4. Filbertthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, honey, egg, almond, sugar, butter, pistachio. 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.

More nougat recipes

Almond 15French 10Chocolate 9Peanut 7Ice Cream 6Chocolate Cake 5 See all 30 →

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