THE turrón, torró in Catalan and touron in French, remains the paragon of modern nougat in Europe, the one through which everything happens, from torrone Italian to the confectioneries of Montélimar, which are relatively recent creations. Always associated with Christmas holidays, even if it is now sold all year round, it has its origins in the Middle East, from where it was transported by the Arab-Andalusian and Jewish cultures to the Iberian Peninsula.
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Let the gourmets of the end-of-year holidays rely on History! At the origins, sweets and medicines merge. The oldest nougat recipe was thus transmitted to us by the good doctor Galen – who lived in Pergamum, between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD – and based his knowledge on two unshakeable pillars. He called them “ both his legs »: reason and experience, i.e. logos And empire. More concretely, its mixture of honey, almonds and whole pine nuts had the healthy objective of calming coughs.
A few centuries later, the caliphs of Baghdad took inspiration from Greek medicine to, in turn, relieve our ailments without forgetting our taste buds. They even add a new ingredient, cane sugar. Coming from India to Persia, the latter eventually spread throughout the Mediterranean region, towards the end of the Middle Ages. In the meantime, its use has become the main innovation of antidotaries in the Arab world, aqrabadhin – still impassive, between two chocolates.
THE la’uqatfrom the verb la’aqa which means to lick, designate marzipans and nougats and are present in the pharmaceutical treatises of the Persian Avicenna, written in Arabic. They constitute one of the five medicinal families and are always intended to treat the respiratory tract. L’Spain Muslim collects and transmits this therapeutic and culinary knowledge, as well as know-how on the making of honey and secrets on the processing of sugar.
THE turrón of Agramunt in Catalonia
It is therefore no coincidence that the first European treatise dedicated to all these delicacies is a Catalan manuscript from the 15th century, today kept at the University Library of Barcelona. It is titled the Free from all types of candied foodsor the book of different kinds of confectionery. It is about, among a thousand other things, a turrón made from egg white, hazelnuts and honey. This recipe is very similar to the one that is still used today in Agramunt, in the province of Lérida, still in Catalonia.
This territory is one of three to benefit from a protected geographical indication. THE turrón d’Agramunt, which was somewhat neglected during the Franco period, is exported today to France by the Vincens housewhose know-how dates back to 1755, if we stick to the oldest written records. Taken over in 2000 by the Barcelona pastry chef Angel Velasco, who died in 2022, this company has boutiques in Perpignan, Toulouse and Paris, and thanks to him opened up to sweet and savory experiments, spicy or chocolate flavors, far from any academicism .
“Everything is turrón “, we say in the Parisian shop, where we proudly detail the surprising and refined variations of chef Albert Adrià, brother of the master of molecular cuisine, Ferran Adrià. Pumpkin seeds, Thai coconut, matcha tea and mojito — the list is far from exhaustive — thus coexist with traditional nougat, a round pancake placed between two layers of wafer, formerly made from unleavened bread and today from potato starch. Angel Velasco liked to point out that the original confectionery, which lasts for a very long time, dates back to the 13th century and had served as a survival ration for many soldiers.
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In the Valencian community, turrón hard and soft from Alicante and Jijona
In the same store, you can also find the two other historic varieties of turróneach benefiting from one of the two other protected geographical indications. THE turrón blando or soft, is undoubtedly the most famous. It is made from sugar, honey, egg white and ground almonds. Unctuous and oily, it surely cures a number of ailments and originates from Jijona, in the province of Alicante, which produces 60% of the turrón Spanish.
The first written record dates back to 1484 in Valencia. In the following century, Philip II’s cook noted that it was appreciated at court, particularly at Christmas time, a practice which would become a popular tradition in the 19th century. It soon became one of the gifts sent to princes and kings. More prosaically, Jijona’s families travel throughout Spain. They rent the gates of the houses in the city centers for three or four weeks, which turn into real open-air markets.
THE hard turrón comes from Alicante. As for the white turrón, It all starts with a mixture of honey and sugar, but it takes a little longer to cook. Next come the egg white and toasted almonds. Finally, everything is covered with a thin layer of matzo bread. In these two variants, the confectionery is cut into rectangular portions before being packaged in Jijona. The city remains in the collective imagination the capital of turrón And a place of pilgrimage for all lovers of traditional pharmacopoeia.
Our end of year series:
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