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Dessert

Filbert Torte

A baked torte made with filberts (hazelnuts), bread crumbs, lemon, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Filbert Torte

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Beat the egg yolks and powdered sugar until very light.

  3. Add the bread crumbs, lemon juice, grated filberts or hazelnuts, and grated lemon rind, and mix well.

  4. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites last.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into a springform pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes.

  2. Frost with nut frosting and decorate with nuts.

  3. Alternatively, bake in two layers and fill with fresh strawberries or sweetened whipped cream.

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. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Bread + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped to stiff foam, they lighten the batter and give the torte its airy rise.
Egg yolks
Beaten with sugar, they enrich the batter and add richness and structure as they set.
Filberts or hazelnuts
Provide the main nutty flavour and body, replacing much of the flour in the batter.
Bread crumbs
Add light body and help bind the batter so it holds its shape while baking.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and, beaten with the yolks, helps create a light, fine texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold the batter's air, so fold gently and quickly with a spatula. Overmixing deflates the foam, leaving a dense torte instead of a light one.

Swap the filbert

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, lemon, sugar, egg):

  1. Chestnutfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Peasfits better
  4. Filbertthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, lemon, sugar, egg. 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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