Recipe no. 494 from Jean-Baptiste Reboul's La Cuisinière provençale (1909), page 224.
Ingredients
- Sugar, 250 grams
- Water, a glass
- Honey, 300 grams
- Egg whites, 5
- Half-toasted almonds, 200 grams
- Pistachios, 100 grams
- Pink pralines, 100 grams
Preparation
- Cooking the sugar syrupPut 250 grams of sugar into a bowl with a glass of water; let it dissolve then cook it a few minutes.
- Checking the syrup is cookedWhen, dipping a finger into this syrup and returning it immediately to cold water, rolling the sugar left stuck to it between this finger and the thumb, a ball forms that snaps cleanly under the tooth, this syrup is cooked.
- Reducing the honey and folding in whitesYou will have, at the same time, reduced over the heat in another bowl, stirring it with a spoon, 300 grams of honey; once it has reached the degree we have just indicated for the sugar, which is checked by the same test, mix the syrup and the honey and add, working it in well, 5 egg whites whisked stiff.
- Adding almonds and pistachiosSet the bowl on the corner of the heat to let it cook a few minutes more, stirring with the spatula; then add 200 grams of half-toasted almonds, hot, 100 grams of pistachios and 100 grams of pink pralines; mix well; pour it all into a frame lined as for the other nougat and finish the same way.
Reboul's text
Put 250 grams of sugar into a bowl with a glass of water; let it dissolve then cook it a few minutes.
When, dipping a finger into this syrup and returning it immediately to cold water, rolling the sugar left stuck to it between this finger and the thumb, a ball forms that snaps cleanly under the tooth, this syrup is cooked.
You will have, at the same time, reduced over the heat in another bowl, stirring it with a spoon, 300 grams of honey; once it has reached the degree we have just indicated for the sugar, which is checked by the same test, mix the syrup and the honey and add, working it in well, 5 egg whites whisked stiff.
Set the bowl on the corner of the heat to let it cook a few minutes more, stirring with the spatula; then add 200 grams of half-toasted almonds, hot, 100 grams of pistachios and 100 grams of pink pralines; mix well; pour it all into a frame lined as for the other nougat and finish the same way.
Small Provençal glossary for this recipe
Reboul writes in French: no Provençal word appears in this recipe, apart from the dish's name itself. The table below gives the Provençal equivalents of the words used, in mistralian spelling, translated by Lingua Nostra. Each form is attested in our Provençal-English dictionary; click to open the entry.
| Provençal | English |
|---|---|
| sucre | sugar |
| mèu | honey |
| pistacho | pistachios |
| espatulo | spatula |
Source: Jean-Baptiste Reboul, La Cuisinière provençale, Marseille, 1909, recipe no. 494, page 224. Public domain. Transcription, formatting and Provençal glossary by Lingua Nostra.