a combination of almonds and boiled sugar, is a popular confection with a long history. The name is originally French, and the Dictionnaire de l'épicerie (1898) gives this definition: ‘praline.—Bonbon formé d'une amande rissolée dans du sucre dont elle forme ensuite le noyeau, et parfumé et coloré de diverses manières.’
The important points in this definition are that it refers to almonds which are whole and separate, each covered with boiled, grained sugar. This remains the primary meaning of the word in modern French.
According to an often-repeated but unverifiable legend dating back to the end of the 18th century at least, the name ‘praline’ is derived from the Duke of Plessis-Praslin (1598–1675). His cook is supposed to have invented a method for coating whole almonds in grained caramelized sugar, and later to have retired to the town of Montargis to produce the sweets commercially. Whatever the truth, pralines were well known, outside as well as inside France, by the 18th century, when recipes for ‘Prawlins’, or for ‘Almonds Crisped’ appeared in English cookery books. Borella (1770) observed that ‘pralin’ is ‘French Anglicised, as there is no English word to express the real idea of the French in this sort of preserving almonds’. Eventually, however, praline, like many other French culinary terms, became an adopted word in the English language.
As an English word, praline now has the main meaning of a powdered nut-and-sugar confection, the nuts commonly (but not exclusively) used being almonds. The skinned nuts are cooked with a syrup boiled to the caramel stage (see sugar boiling). The mixture is then poured onto a surface to cool, after which it is ground (finely or coarsely, depending on the end use). The resulting powder (referred to in French as pralin or praliné) is never used by itself, but always as an ingredient in other confections, whether desserts or chocolate products.
In N. America pralines are a speciality of several southern states. In Louisiana, especially New Orleans, the name applies to candies made with pecans in a coating of brown sugar which used to be sold by Creole women known as pralinières.
In French-speaking Belgium and in German, the word praline simply means a filled chocolate; and this usage has also appeared to some extent in English.
Laura Mason has written about several aspects of British food in books including Sugar Plums and Sherbet (1998), Farmhouse Cookery (2005), and Traditional Foods of Britain (1999), which she co-authored with Catherine Brown.
Borella, Mr (1770), The Court and Country Confectioner, London.
