Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓
Chocolate Nut Filling
Ingredients
Directions
Boil sugar and water until it reaches a thread stage.
Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg white.
Add the melted chocolate and stir until thick enough to spread.
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.
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Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,404 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Chocolate + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,448 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and, boiled into a syrup, gives it body once cooled.
- Egg white
- Whipped with hot syrup, it forms a light foam that gives the filling structure.
- Chocolate
- Adds flavour and richness, and thickens the mixture as it cools.
The step that matters
Pour the hot syrup over the beaten egg white. The syrup must be hot enough to cook the egg white slightly while it is beaten. Pouring it in slowly while beating prevents lumps and keeps the foam smooth and stable.
“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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