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Nougat
Three cups of granulated sugar, 11½ cups of any kind of nut meats (preferably Engany kind of nut meats (preferably English walnuts ), 2-3 cup of honey, 2-3 cup of hot water, and the white of one egg beaten stiff.
Boil the sugar, honey and water together until they make a rather hard ball when dropped in cold water. Remove from the fire, pour in the beaten white of the egg and beat briskly with a silver fork.
After beating a while, pour in the nut meats and continue to beat until it begins to make a hard creamy mass, then pour into a buttered tered tin or platter to cool. No better, more or delicately flavored candy is obtainable at any price. Try it. a
A honey nougat of the simplest kind: a hard-ball syrup beaten into egg white, loaded with nuts, and left to set. The whole dish turns on syrup temperature.
- The measurements"2-3 cup" stands for two-thirds of a cup, for both the honey and the hot water, the fraction having lost its bar in transcription. The nut quantity as printed ("11½ cups") is garbled; a cup and a half of nut meats suits three cups of sugar.
- Hard ball, in numbersThe cold-water test the recipe describes is 250-265F on a candy thermometer. Below that the nougat stays sticky and will not slice; much above it and the finished sheet shatters rather than chews.
- Honey affects the readHoney browns and scorches sooner than sugar syrup, so work over moderate heat and do not rely on colour as a doneness cue. The thermometer or the water test is the only guide.
- Beating by handThe recipe calls for a silver fork; period cookery often specified silver for delicate white mixtures, though no reason is given here. A stand mixer with the whisk does this far better: pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a thin stream with the machine running.
- When to stop"A hard creamy mass" means the mixture loses its gloss, thickens visibly and holds a ribbon from the beater. Stop there, as it stiffens fast once the nuts go in and becomes unspreadable.
- Nuts and panToast and warm the nuts first; cold nuts chill the mass and set it prematurely. Butter a shallow 8-inch tin or line it with parchment, press the mixture level with buttered hands, and cut into squares while barely warm.
- Yield and keepingRoughly two pounds, or several dozen small pieces. Store between layers of waxed paper in an airtight tin; humidity will make it weep within a day or two.
Nougat in English-language cookbooks of this period can mean either of two quite different sweets: the chewy white confection associated with Montélimar in southern France, built on honey, whipped egg white and almonds, or a darker brittle nut candy also sold under the name. This one belongs to the first family, though it substitutes English walnuts for almonds and skips the long slow cooking over a water bath used in some French methods. The closing flourish -- "No better... candy is obtainable at any price. Try it" -- is a promotional note struck by the compiler rather than a measure of the sweet.