How is nougat made?

Nougat is a family of soft, chewy or crunchy sweets made from sugar, honey or syrup combined with nuts, egg white, cocoa, milk powder or candied fruit. Its main colour is usually white or brown.

How white nougat is made

The usual nougat of Western and Southern Europe is made like this:

1. Whip. Egg whites are whipped into a mousse.
2. Sweeten. The mousse is sweetened with sugar or honey. On the sweet maker's scale of sugar stages, nougat is listed at the hard ball stage, 121 to 130°C: see how are sweets made?
3. Add the good things. Nuts, such as almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios and walnuts, and pieces of candied fruit are folded into the paste.
4. Set and cut. The paste is left to harden, then cut into pieces.
5. Wrap. Some makers wrap nougat in edible wafer paper to make it easier to handle, which can affect the taste depending on its thickness.

Nougat is usually made at home or by artisan nougat makers, known in French as nougatiers.

Styles of nougat

• Montélimar nougat, the most prominent French nougat, is traditionally made with whipped egg white, sugar, lavender honey, roasted almonds and pistachios, vanilla, and unleavened bread. It became famous across Europe in the 19th century, was well received at the 1878 Paris World Fair, and received protected status in 2024.
• Italian torrone uses whipped egg white, sugar, honey and roasted almonds, usually with vanilla or citrus and edible rice paper.
• Brown nougat, in Central and Northern Europe, is a paste made without egg whites, usually crunchy, with a softer version called Viennese nougat.
• American nougat is more often a softer brown paste made in factories as a filling for chocolate bars, frequently with milk chocolate, caramel and peanuts.

British nougat

In Britain, nougat is traditionally made in the southern European style and is commonly found at fairgrounds and seaside resorts. The most common factory made type is coloured pink and white, the pink often fruit flavoured, and sometimes wrapped in edible rice paper with almonds and cherries.

A very old sweet

Nougats made with whipped egg white, sweeteners and flavourings appear in a 10th century cookbook written in Baghdad, then capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, where it was called nātif. Nougat reached southern France by the 17th century. The English word, borrowed from French in the early 19th century, comes from Old Occitan nogat, meaning nutty.

Allergens

White nougat contains egg white, nougat is often made with nuts, and in chocolate bars is often combined with peanuts: see eggs in sweets and which sweets contain nuts?

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