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Dessert

Almond Nougat

A sweet confection made from almonds, powdered sugar, water, lemon juice, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Nougat

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch and split the almonds.

  2. Spread the almonds on a plate.

  3. Place them in a gentle oven (300°F / 150°C) to dry and brown.

  4. Remove the almonds from the oven.

  5. Mix the almonds with the lemon juice.

Make the nougat

  1. In a saucepan, combine the powdered sugar and water.

  2. Stir until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Add the almonds to the sugar mixture a few at a time.

  4. Let it simmer until it thickens. Stir constantly.

  5. Pour the mixture into buttered pans.

  6. Cut into pieces when nearly cold.

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 + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

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

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. 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

Almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour, and they brown in the oven for aroma.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves and cooks down into the sweet, chewy base that sets the nougat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and helps keep the sugar from crystallising.

The step that matters

Let it simmer until it thickens. Stirring constantly keeps the sugar from scorching or sticking to the pan, and cooking it until thick sets the texture so the nougat firms up as it cools.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, butter. 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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