Why it works: Chocolate and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,733 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Drops
Ingredients
Directions
Make the fondant
In a saucepan, combine sugar and cold water; boil for 4 minutes.
Place the saucepan in cold water and beat the mixture until cool enough to form into small balls.
Coat and finish
Shave the chocolate finely and place it in a bowl over a boiling kettle to melt.
Once the balls are cool, roll them in the melted chocolate using a fork.
If desired, mold an almond meat into the center of each ball before rolling in coarse sugar.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,733 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Almond + meattop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together486 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Chocolate + meattop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together209 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Granulated sugar
- Forms the base mixture that sets into the soft candy centers.
- Baker's chocolate
- Forms the melted coating that gives the drops their chocolate flavor and shell.
The step that matters
Beating the mixture while it cools. Beating sugar syrup as it cools encourages small crystals to form, giving a smooth, creamy center rather than a hard, glassy one. Stop beating too early and the balls will not hold their shape.
Swap the almond
The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, chocolate, meat):
- Peanutfits about as well
- Almondthe original
- Pecansfits about as well
- Walnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, chocolate, meat. 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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