Nougat
Nougat is a sort of paste made of sugar, almonds, pistachio nuts, or filberts, and used by confectioners for making pretty sweet dishes. A little practice is necessary before it can be well made. The process is as follows: Blanch 1 pound of Jordan almonds; dry them well in a soft cloth, cut them into quarters, put them on a baking-sheet in a cool oven, and let them remain until quite hot through and lightly browned. When they are nearly ready, put half a pound of sifted sugar into a copper pan without any water; move it about with a wooden spoon. When it is melted and begins to bubble, stir in the hot almonds gently, so as not to break them. Have ready the mould which is to be used slightly but thoroughly oiled, and spread the paste all over it about a quarter of an inch thick. This is the difficult part of the operation, as the nougat hardens very quickly. The pan in which it is should be kept in a warm place to prevent its stiffening before the mould is finished. It is a good plan to spread out a piece for the bottom of the mould first, and put that in its place; then pieces for the sides. Care must be taken, however, to make these pieces stick closely together. A cut lemon dipped in oil is a great assistance in spreading the paste. When the nougat is firmly set, turn it out carefully and serve it on a stand filled with whipped cream, or as required. Time to boil the sugar, till it is well melted.
This is what a modern confectioner calls nougatine or almond croquant: a dry caramel bound with toasted almonds, pressed into a shell rather than a chewy white nougat. The whole job hinges on heat management, since caramel and nuts stiffen within a minute or two of leaving the stove.
- The hinge: keep everything hotCold almonds seize the caramel instantly and it becomes unspreadable. Have the nuts genuinely hot from the oven, the mould oiled and waiting, and the pan of paste sitting over a pan of hot water or on a warm hob while you work. If it does stiffen, return it briefly to low heat and it will soften again.
- "A cool oven"For drying and lightly colouring the almonds, something in the region of 250-300F answers; period usage is not exact. They should be dry and pale gold, not dark; almonds that brown deeply in the oven will taste scorched once bound in caramel.
- Jordan almondsHere this means the large, flat, sweet Spanish almonds sold shelled, not the modern sugar-coated wedding sweet. Ordinary whole blanched almonds work; buy them raw and unsalted.
- "Sifted sugar"In nineteenth-century usage this generally meant loaf sugar pounded and passed through a sieve, roughly the fineness of modern caster or superfine sugar. Fine grain matters in a dry caramel, which is made with no water at all and depends on even melting.
- Copper panAny heavy pan with good conduction will do; a thin pan scorches one patch of sugar while another is still granular. Stainless steel is fine and lets you judge the colour better than copper.
- Dry caramel techniqueSugar melted alone goes through a lumpy stage before it clears. Keep the heat moderate, stir steadily with a wooden spoon, and pull it off the moment it is a light amber and just bubbling. Half a pound of sugar to a pound of almonds is a lean ratio, so it sets hard and quickly.
- The oiled lemonThe recipe's cut lemon dipped in oil works better than a spoon: the curved cut face conforms to the shell and the oil keeps the paste from clinging. A metal spoon dipped in oil is the fallback.
- Moulds and turning outUse a shallow metal bowl or a plain fluted tin, oiled thinly but everywhere. Let the shell cool fully before turning out, and warm the outside of the mould for a few seconds with a cloth if it resists.
- Yield and servingServing -- nougatine goes soft and sticky in damp air, so build it the day it is served and keep it dry and covered until then.
Nougatine of this kind belongs to the nineteenth-century French confectioner's repertoire, where sugar work was structural as much as edible: shells, baskets and cases of caramelised almond were built to hold creams and ices. The name nougat covers two quite different things, and confusion between them is old. The soft white kind, aerated with egg white and honey, is associated above all with Montelimar in the Rhone valley; the hard almond-caramel kind, generally distinguished as nougatine, is the one used for construction. The book concedes at the outset that "a little practice is necessary," which is a fair warning for a technique in which the working time is very short.