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Chocolate Almond Egg Nougat

A nougat made with chocolate, almonds, egg whites, and cocoa butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chocolate Almond Egg Nougat

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Place 25 lbs of mixed scrap in a kettle with 3 quarts of water and dissolve.

  2. Strain the mixture once melted.

  3. Cook to 250°F (120°C) and pour half over the well-beaten egg whites.

  4. Add 3 ounces of cocoa butter.

  5. Cook the other half to 260°F (130°C) and pour into the egg mixture.

Test and finish

  1. Test the batch in cold water for a stiff ball consistency.

  2. If too hard, add water and vanilla to reduce.

  3. If not hard enough, cook over a low flame until it reaches the caramel test.

  4. Add 3 to 4 lbs of scrap fondant and mix until smooth.

  5. When thick, add 2 tablespoons of nutmeg, vanilla flavor, 1 lb of shaved chocolate, and 2 lbs of Valencia almonds.

Set and cut

  1. Pour into a wafer-lined box and cut into 5-cent slices the next day, about 2x4 inches.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Nutmeg + vanillatop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the nougat its light, airy structure.
Valencia almonds
Add crunch and texture that contrasts with the chewy, soft body.
Shaved chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and richness to the finished nougat.
Cocoa butter
Adds fat that gives a smooth mouthfeel and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Testing the batch in cold water. Sugar syrup must reach the right stage to set firm but not brittle. Checking a cold-water drop shows whether it has cooked far enough, and the batch can be corrected by adding water or cooking further before the nougat is mixed in.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cocoa butter, vanilla, chocolate, almond):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Peppermintfits less well
  4. Allspicefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cocoa butter, vanilla, chocolate, almond. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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