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Dessert

Chocolate Tart

A tart made with eggs, sugar, almonds, chocolate, raisins, crackers, lemon, cinnamon, citron, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chocolate Tart

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and set aside.

Make the filling

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until very light.

  2. Add the grated chocolate, chopped almonds, raisins, crushed soda crackers, baking powder, lemon juice and peel, cinnamon, and chopped citron to the yolk mixture.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a greased tart pan and bake for about 30‑40 minutes or until set.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Almond + raisintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 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

Eggs
Whites trap air for lightness, and yolks enrich the batter and help it set when baked.
Almonds
Add body and a nutty texture, so the tart is substantial rather than airy.
Chocolate
Provides rich flavor and fat, and firms up as the tart cools after baking.
Soda crackers
Crumbs absorb moisture and add bulk, giving the tart structure without much flour.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the tart rise and become lighter in texture.
Raisins
Add moisture and sweetness, with chewy pockets throughout the tart.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stirring instead of folding deflates the whipped whites, losing the air that gives the tart lift. Fold gently until just combined.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, almond, vanilla, chocolate, raisin, cinnamon):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Cherryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, almond, vanilla, chocolate, raisin, cinnamon. 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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