Nougat's earliest clear recipes come from a 10th-century cookbook written in Baghdad, where the confection was called nāṭif, meaning dribbling or trickling for its viscous texture. It included whipped egg white, sweeteners and flavorings. Related sweets appeared in Persia, where a pistachio nougat called gaz became documented in the late 16th century. Nougat reached Spain by the 15th century and southern France in the 17th century. Montélimar nougat became famous across Europe in the 19th century, while Turin chocolatiers created hazelnut versions after Napoleonic trade blockades limited cocoa.

In 1909 D. W. Griffith made a 14-minute film about a speculator who corners the wheat market and doubles the price of bread. A farmer sows his field while a 'Wheat King' gambles in the Chicago wheat pit; bakers raise the loaf from five cents to ten and the poor line up for bread. Griffith cut back and forth between the farm, the feast and the breadline, a technique called parallel editing, so audiences saw both ends of the economy at once. The film drew on Frank Norris's stories and on a real scheme: months earlier Chicago financier James Patten had cornered wheat, sent bread prices up and made about $5 million, roughly $185 million today.