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Dessert

Rosecolored ‘nougat’, Provence Fashion

A rose-flavored nougat made with almonds, sugar, honey, wheat syrup, citric acid, rose extract, and vegetable carmine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Rosecolored ‘nougat’, Provence Fashion

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dry the almonds well and keep them warm.

  2. Combine the sugar and honey.

Make the nougat

  1. Heat and boil the mixture, skimming carefully.

  2. When it starts bubbling, add the wheat syrup and citric acid.

  3. Remove the mixture from heat.

  4. Add the rose extract and vegetable carmine.

  5. Pour the mixture onto an oiled marble slab.

  6. Use a flat spoon to bring it to the center until it forms a manageable paste.

  7. With your hands, draw out the paste as done for twisted sugar.

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. Almond + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together264 recipes

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

  3. Honey + wheattop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together346 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Almond + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,465 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Almond + honeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,069 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Small sweet almonds
Provide the main body and bite of the nougat as the solid filling in the honey-sugar matrix.
Pounded sugar
Sweetens the nougat and, once boiled, helps it set into a firm, chewy mass.
White honey
Adds sweetness and moisture, and keeps the cooked mixture soft rather than grainy.
Wheat syrup
Adds sweetness and helps prevent the sugar from recrystallizing, keeping the texture smooth.

The step that matters

Heat and boil the mixture, skimming carefully. The sugar and honey must reach the right temperature to set into a chewy, workable nougat. Undercooking leaves it sticky, while overcooking makes it hard and brittle. Skimming removes foam that would otherwise cloud the texture.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, honey, wheat, syrup, rose):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, honey, wheat, syrup, rose. 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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