Name: French Nougat Candy
Ingredients: 2 egg whites; ½ cup water; 4X sugar (powdered sugar); Chopped nuts; Egg yolk (optional for color); Grated chocolate (optional for color); Red sugar (optional for color)

Why it works: Nuts and chocolate work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 440 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

French Nougat Candy

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy.
Add ½ cup of water and mix well.
Gradually stir in powdered sugar until the mixture is manageable by hand.
Fold in chopped nuts.
If desired, add egg yolk for yellow color, grated chocolate for brown, or red sugar for red.
Shape the mixture into molds and let it stand to improve.

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.

Nuts + chocolatetop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together440 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg + chocolatetop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Sugar + nutstop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,228 recipes

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