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Chocolate Nougate

A baked chocolate nougat with almond layers and a boiled sugar syrup icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chocolate Nougate

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.

Prepare the cake

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

  2. Melt the chocolate over hot water and mix it with the butter just before baking.

  3. In a bowl, combine the butter, sugar, flour, eggs, milk, and baking powder.

  4. Pour the batter into a prepared baking pan and bake until done.

Make the icing

  1. For the icing, boil 1 pint of water and pour it over 4 cups of pulverized sugar.

  2. Let the mixture boil until it forms a soft ball in cold water.

  3. Beat the reserved egg whites until stiff, then pour the syrup over them and beat until cool.

  4. Add the vanilla and tartaric acid, then spread the icing between the layers with blanched almonds.

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Provide structure to the batter and whites whipped to stiff foam for the icing.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake crumb as it sets in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and tenderness to the cake crumb and richness to the batter.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, when boiled, forms the syrup that sets the icing.
Baking chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and color to the cake batter.

The step that matters

Cooking the icing syrup to a soft ball. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set properly. Too little boiling leaves the icing runny, while overcooking makes it hard and grainy as it cools. Check by dropping a little into cold water.

“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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