Talk:Nougat

Black nougat

Since you included the Italian and Spanish name for the white version, you probably want to include that black nougat is called "croccante" in Italy, which literally means crunchy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.158.111.5 (talk) 10:27, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

Vienna is not part of Germany

In the whole article it talks of Viennese Nougat as if it originated from Germany, but Vienna is the capital of Austria and not part of Germany. Actually, the german page on Nougat states that Viennese Nougat originated from Turin in Italy. 213.164.5.110 (talk) 13:28, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

1st, Germany didn't exist as more than a vague concept prior to the 19th century and Austria was absolutely part of it. It was usually the seat of the "king of the Germans" and "Roman" (read: German) emperor for centuries. No, that doesn't mean it needs to be annexed or merged anytime soon. There're tons of historical reasons there are those two separate countries now.

2nd, the political status historical or present of Vienna has no bearing at all on the origin of the nougat now considered representative of the Viennese style. Your next sentence says it's 'really' from Italy and not Austria or Germany. It's still called Viennese nougat, not Grand Torino.

3rd, neither of those mistaken points settle the case of where it's actually from and German Wiki isn't a reliable source on its own. It's great to fix mistaken information but it's best if you provide sources so other editors don't revert your changes or get confused on how to check things if there are competing accounts. — LlywelynII 07:04, 14 June 2025 (UTC)

Nougat in Antiquity?

User:81.242.243.90 added:

The first appearance of nougat was described in the "Istoria Naturalis" by
Plinius the Old. As for him it was in Augusta Taurinorum, the current Turin.  

Pliny the Elder's Natural History is quite large, and difficult to search, but the only reference I was able to find to Augusta Taurinorum `in the NH is a passing reference that says nothng about confectionery:

oppida Vibi Forum, Segusio, coloniae ab Alpium radicibus Augusta Taurinorum - 
inde navigabili Pado - antiqua Ligurum stirpe...

I suspect that the idea that nougat was mentioned by Pliny is merely a folk etymology for turrón. If I am wrong, please do correct me.

For what it's worth, a mixture similar to nougat is described in the Dipnosophistæ of Athenaeus, in the recipe for "gastris."

...ἐν Κρήτῃ δέ, φησίν, πλα κουντάριον ποιοῦσιν, ὅπερ ὀνομάζουσι γάστριν. γίνεται δὲ οὕτως· κάρυα Θάσια καὶ Ποντικὰ καὶ ἀμύγδαλα, ἔτι δὲ μήκων, ἃ [ὃν] φρύξας θεράπευσον καλῶς καὶ εἰς θυίαν καθαρὰν τρῖψον ἐπιμελῶς· συμμίξας τε τὴν ὀπώραν μάλαξον μέλιτι ἡψημένῳ, προσβαλὼν πέπερι πλέον καὶ μάλαξον· γίνεται δὲ μέλαν διὰ τὴν μήκωνα. δια πλατύνας ποίησον τετράγωνον. εἶτα σήσαμον λευκὸν τρίψας μάλαξον μέλιτι ἡψημένῳ καὶ ἕλκυσον λαγάνια δύο καὶ ἓν θὲς ὑποκάτω καὶ τὸ ἄλλο ἐπάνω, ἵνα τὸ μέλαν εἰς μέσον γένηται, εὖ ῥύθμισόν τε αὐτό.’ ταῦτα καὶ ὁ σοφὸς πεμματολόγος Χρύσιππος.

'But in Crete, they say, they make a type of biscuit called "gastris." Here's how it's made: roast Thasian nuts (i.e. sweet almonds) and Pontic nuts (i.e. hazelnuts), and almonds (i.e. bitter almonds), also poppy, watching them attentively, and pound them carefully in a clean mortar. Mix together these nuts, then knead with boiled honey, add plenty of pepper and knead it it; it turns black from the poppy. Spread it out into a square. Then grind white sesame and knead it with boiled honey, and draw it out into two wafers, then put one on top and the other on the bottom so that the black mixture will be in the middle, and cut it up nicely.' So says the wise cake-ologist Chrysippus.

-Dipnosophistae 14:57

--Iustinus 18:45, 27 October 2005 (UTC)

Latin

The "nougat" name originates from the Latin "nux gatum", "cooked with nuts". Source: Finnish Wikipedia - can this be verified elsewhere? --Janke | Talk 07:05, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

No. It looks like a distortion of "'nucatum', 'made from nuts'", which would be more accurate. The full story is that in Classical Latin the word nucatum never occurs, rather it's a back-formation from provençal nougat. --Iustinus 07:50, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

From the online etymology dictionary http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=nougat&searchmode=none nougat "sweetmeat of almonds and other nuts," 1827, from Fr. nougat, from Prov. nougat "cake made with almonds," from O.Prov. nogat "nutcake," from noga, nuga "nut," from V.L. *nucatum (nom. *nuca), from 'L. nux (gen. nucis) "nut" (see nucleus). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.38.111.186 (talk) 21:09, 22 May 2010 (UTC)

Merger with turrón/torrone/torró

Nougat is known as turrón in Spanish, torrone in Italian, and torró in Català. There are of course variations in the details of the recipe and of habits surrounding this food in various regions, but as Alan Davidson says in The Oxford Companion to Food:

Italian torrone and Spanish turrón are, essentially, other forms of nougat.

I was reminded of this identity because I just had a taste of Sicilian torrone this week, and last week, a taste of Montelimar nougat. Sticky teeth.

So I recommend that we

• Merge --Macrakis 22:18, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
• Merge --ProfMoriarty 20:27, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
• (Don't Merge) Do NOT merge turron and nouget. It would be muy malo!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.63.43.49 (talk • contribs) 11:48, 25 April 2006
  • Could you please explain your reasoning? As far as I can tell, turrón is simply the Spanish word for nougat. The English-language WP always prefers to use English names for things if they exist. --Macrakis 21:44, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

Torrone is more often of a hard variety (although soft varieties do exist), which nougat is not (nougat is predominantly soft). There are also ingredient differences, classic Nougat de Montelimar containing Almonds and Pistachios, while Torrone usually contains Almonds with Hazelnuts, plus candied orange or lemon peel. The two are related, but not the same.

• Don't Merge -- Turrón in Spain also can be chocolate with puffed rice in it which is definitely not nougat. If you go to a spanish supermarket near Christmas you will see that there are many different varieties and flavours, including toasted yolk! Rosa.blaus 14:57:03, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
• Don't Merge -- The consistencies, preparation and consumption of turrón do not emulate those of nougat. In Spain, turrón is synonymous with almost every Christmas candy and is generally consumed at this time and at no other, elevating the candy to a cultural icon. To merge it with nougat would not only simplify it's existence as a food, but also demean it's cultural value. (unsigned comment by User:66.152.212.201 2006-06-05 18:28:21)
• Don't Merge -- Turrón refers to a very precised cultural tradition: it's a sweet or a class of sweets (there are several different varieties) eaten traditionnally at Christmas, and made in the small town of Jijona, in the southeast of Spain. Turrón is not the spanish name for nougat, but a word referring to this food. --Rodriguillo 22:52, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
  • Comment I can't say I have a strong oppinion one way or the other, but if what you are saying is true, then what is the Spanish name for nougat? So far as I can tell (and my knowledge of this subject is not exactly vast) turrón is it. --Iustinus 04:54, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

From the article

Someone wrote, "The picture (right) is not the typical nougat, made with egg-white and nuts. It appears to be the German-style Schmelz-Schokolade. A better, more typical, picture is needed." Tom Harrison ^Talk 19:50, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

I completely agree. I see no reason to keep this picture, which appears to show some kind of praline. The picture is now removed. I will look to find a replacement. [[user:jimjamjak]] (talk) 14:00, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Clarity Issues

I found some issues with the clarity of this article. I came here because I don't know what nougat is, so I can't fix these problems myself.

Australian nougat is produced by a similar method to French nougat but usually has a 50% almond content and no pistachios, although it can contain Macadamia nuts, apricots, or other texture modifiers.

The article never says what French nougat is like, so comparing Australian nougat to French nougat isn't useful. Spanish and Italian nougats are discussed, but not French.

The making of Nogha is very much the same as any other Gaz. The difference is that Nogha is usually spread between two very thin layers of wafers & cut into 10x5x5 cm cubes which are larger than ordinary Gaz cubes.

Again, this is referencing something that isn't explained in the article. How is other Gaz made? There's a list of ingredients but no real explanation. Also, anything that's 10x5x5 isn't a cube. That might be nitpicking too much though.

There are two types of African nougat, or, 'nougati', ranged from the white (kurtzati) to a black (baxtiti), mainly consistent of fruits rather than pistachios or other nuts. The higher fruit-to-nut ratio can be most prominent in the brown (simchati) nougat variety. Nougat that is fruit-filled is considered to be most desirable in Africa.

It mentions that there are exactly two types of African nougat, then goes onto use the word "ranged" which suggests multiple types in between the white and black nougats. It even mentions a third one with it's own name so it seems that there must be at least three.

I wish I knew enough to fix these myself, but I am clueless about this confectionery item. :) Hopefully someone else can step in and make it a little clearer.

76.243.92.2 (talk) 21:38, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Iranian pistachio based nougat introduction

Hi, I try to add this link in Nougat article to introduce persian sweetmeal Gaz more: http://www.nougaz.com/default.cfm?IDDR=1&IDLA=1&IDSE=2&IDSS=9 but i couldn't add due to advertisment and spam alert from moderator!—Preceding unsigned comment added by Hadins (talk • contribs) 12:27, 18 April 2008

You were actually linking to the main page of a confectionery retailer, rather than a specific URL. Links to commercial sites are discouraged under WP:EL ("Links to sites that primarily exist to sell products or services").

The URL you mention in your comment is more useful, but it still fails WP:EL for being a site "that does not provide a unique resource beyond what the article would contain if it became a Featured article". If it provides any information about nougat which is not already present in the article (although I'm not sure that it does), we should simply add that information to the article, rather than linking to a commercial site. --McGeddon (talk) 12:32, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

No peanuts?

What about Damascus "Traditional French Nougat" bars? They contain peanuts. Who's in the wrong here? — TooLazyToLogin —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.57.136.187 (talk) 12:42, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

It could be that there are some common varieties of nougat that have peanuts, but the example you give here does not seem to be a common variety of nougat. A google search for Damascus and "Traditional French Nougat" came up with only 8 results, all South African. So I would be skeptical that "traditional french nougat" is an accurate description of the product. Also, in none of the results did they actually mention peanuts, though that doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't have peanuts. If a more famous, internationally-known version of nougat (not nougat candy bar, but straight nougat) includes peanuts, then it would be a good idea to change the wording from "but not peanuts" to "but usually not peanuts" or "but rarely peanuts". Or better yet, if a reliable source describes nougat as having peanuts sometimes. -kotra (talk) 17:49, 30 May 2008 (UTC)

Mispronunciation?

Can an entire country mispronounce a word? Wouldn't that just make it the correct pronunciation of a separate dialect? [Unsigned]

Got to agree here. It's not just a region specific thing, our whole country calls it that. Hence, it's more of a country-based re-naming. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.1.128.149 (talk) 16:03, 22 April 2010 (UTC)

I realise these comments are quite old but I just thought I'd say that I agree. I've never heard British people pronouncing it "Nougar", we pronounce it "Nugget". From my experience, Americans pronounce it "Nougar". Will Bradshaw (talk) 22:06, 25 November 2011 (UTC)

I'm an American. Do NOT pronounce it "nougar." That's just retarded. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.91.171.36 (talk) 21:27, 8 November 2016 (UTC)

[I assume that Will Bradshaw's accent is from Southern England, and by "Nougar" means "Nougah", i.e. /nu:ga:/.]

I pronounce it as /nu:ga:/, and I'm pretty sure I've encountered that pronunciation in England (when I lived there many years ago); and am not sure I've even heard it pronounced with a t sound by anyone who'd heard the word before. Pjrm (talk) 11:49, 24 November 2013 (UTC)

I don't know about Britain, but /nuːɡɑː/ is how it's pronounced here in Australia. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 106.68.221.236 (talk) 15:28, 30 October 2014 (UTC)

Definitely " nugget" as a working class person in London Marchino61 (talk) 14:06, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

I say it as ‘nugget’ but my dad says it as ‘noo-gah’ but then I’m from Birmingham (the one in England) and he’s originally from Staffordshire Overlordnat1 (talk) 16:54, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

Well, I mean, yes, an entire country can mispronounce a word (e.g. the colonial mangling of Qatar as "Cutter" or the hypercorrection of Beijing to have a more 'exotic' /ʒ/ sound) but generally such countries would prefer people treat their mispronunciations as a dialectical variant and leave them alone about it and Wikipedia mostly indulges that tendency.

At present, though, the real issue—apart from the misformatted punctuation in the vicinity—is that our Template:Scd "official" pronunciations are using non-Template:Sc online sources and ignoring what the sources we do have actually say. The OxfordDictionary.com cite (which should be using the actual OED anyway) provides 2 separate British pronunciations, not one, and in other sources they allow that some Yanks also adopt a pseudo-Continental noo-gahhh as well.

Given the mess, they should be shunted to a footnote or, given the separate need to have a holding tank for all the regional variant names anyway, a new #Name or #Terminology section. The dictionary cites should add the OED and M–W entries, remove the non-Template:Sc websites, and merge into a single shared footnote link instead of the current half-line train. All three main pronunciations should be listed, starting with the carry-over from its French origin and then the separate reading pronunciations that developed in Britain and the US. If possible, any oddities or preferences among the Canucks, ANZACs, South Africans, and Indians should be noted. (Wiktionary currently treats the Upside-Downers as having solely the French pronunciation.)

Separately, per the OED & M–W, the word entered English from French, not directly from Occitan. At least from them, it's also unclear that the Occitan itself meant "nutted" or "nutty". They (along with the French CNRTL) list the Occitan as just meaning nougat and deriving from Proto-Romance and Medieval/Vulgar Latin that had meant "nutted" or "nutty". — LlywelynII 04:46, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

Assessment comment

Template:Substituted comment Substituted at 01:33, 30 April 2016 (UTC)

Edit warring on the origin and country names

Please stop edit warring over (a) the origin of nougat (which is largely unknown), and (b) the names of countries mentioned in the article due to political disputes, etc. I have requested temporary page protection. -- Scjessey (talk) 19:27, 30 June 2016 (UTC)

It may be a side effect of this edit war but it's worth noting:

DO NOT USE http://www.tambao-books.com/page-nougat_english IN THIS ARTICLE

It's an entirely non-Template:Sc copy of this article along with an unsourced expansion via the foreign names from our sister projects. It should not be used to circularly 'source' any of our sentences or points. Beyond that, someone had added 'Iran' to the infobox as nougat's origin using the Tambao 'book' as its reference. That's entirely unsupported by the 'book', which copies us in saying the origin is unknown and the thing's first attested in a book from Baghdad, which ain't part of Iran then or now. — LlywelynII 07:10, 14 June 2025 (UTC)

Android

Please do NOT add anything about Android Nougat to this article, as it is not appropriate. Our marshmallow article quite rightly doesn't mention Android either. -- Scjessey (talk) 10:58, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

Nougat is something else in German

in some German speaking countries like Germany and Austria, the term "Nougat" refers to a thick, pliable mass made of mainly hazelnuts, cocoa and sugar. The Nougat which is discussed here is called "Krokant" in these countries, similar to the Italian "Croccante" (there is also a German wikipedia article called "Krokant", which is linked to the English Article "brittle". Krokant actually means any kind of nuts in caramelized sugar, like almond brittle = Mandelkrokan.. I don't know how to change the link to the article, can somebody do that please. I hope I did not violate any etiquette with this request, it is my first contribution to a talk site I think. Eliza Espinoza (talk) 17:54, 29 October 2022 (UTC)

Common English meaning

The main meaning of the word in the US and UK is buried in the "distribution and popularity" section. I suspect that a majority of people who visit the page are looking for that one, in which case it should be mentioned in the lead. Dan Wylie-Sears 2 (talk) 15:57, 4 November 2023 (UTC)

It would be fine if we led with something analogous to the OED or M–W definitions (or, hell, even the pretty good Wiktionary entry) and then followed that up in the next sentence or two with "also used for a variety of similar confections, particularly in the United States, where it describes..." but we aren't. The current lead is an unclear and ultimately erroneous mess that doesn't even touch on the item's Template:Sc in the main dialect of the English language. The lead also conflates a minor subtype—using the same German/Scandinavian name its separate article does—with a "French nougat" that isn't explained in the lead and is dealt with as a non-English Scandinavian term near the bottom of the page.

Absolutely the lead should be rewritten.

The regional names in other languages should also be limited to a single section (in #Distribution_and_popularity or, better, a new one on #Names or #Terminology) instead of repeated several time throughout the article. If we have articles for entirely distinct subvarieties like "turron", those should be handled more clearly here (possibly including section hatnote links) and not entirely conflated with the primary English nougats the article should be about.

Separately, the pronunciation and etymology are currently being unhelpfully misrepresented. See above. — LlywelynII 04:22, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

Misquotes? Better citations ultimately needed

It's odd that the Roman citations seem to be so generic when Livy and Varro have such established books that there ought to be page or section numbers available. Can't seem to find any, though.

Similarly, the nougat article in the Oxford Companion to Deliciousness (which maddeningly only has its first page available) seems contradict (?) our content that the 10th-century recipe was Baghdadi. It references a "10th-century Persian text" instead. A) again maddeningly vague when an actual cite is called for but B) also unclear whether its a truly Persian work or an Iraqi text that happened to be written in Persian for some reason. — LlywelynII 12:48, 20 June 2025 (UTC)