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Black Walnut Nougat

A nougat made from black walnut meat, molasses, baking soda, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and meat are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,035 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Black Walnut Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Make the nougat

  1. Cook the molasses over low heat until it reaches the soft crack stage.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda until well mixed and the mixture begins to puff.

  3. Add the black walnut meats and mix thoroughly.

  4. Pour the mixture onto a slab, scraping any candy from the pan with a palette knife.

  5. Spread and turn the mixture on the slab until it is cool enough to handle.

Shape and cut

  1. Mold the nougat in a greased tin pan that is 1.5 inches deep.

  2. Once cooled, turn the nougat out of the pan and cut it lengthwise down the middle.

  3. Slice the nougat into pieces that are ¼ to ⅜ inch thick using a sharp knife.

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. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

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

  2. Molasses + walnuttop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together560 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + meattop 37% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together441 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

N. o. molasses
Provides the sweetness and chewy body that sets as the candy cools.
Baking soda
Reacts with the hot molasses to create gas bubbles, making the mixture puff and lighten.
Black walnut meats
Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavor throughout the nougat.

The step that matters

Remove from heat and stir in the baking soda. Molasses must be at the soft crack stage before the baking soda goes in. Adding the soda promptly while the candy is hot lets it foam and puff, and the mixture sets quickly, so delay or overmixing can leave it dense or grainy.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, meat):

  1. Nutsfits about as well
  2. Beansfits about as well
  3. Walnutthe original
  4. Pecansfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, meat. 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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