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Chocolate Nougate

A chocolate cake with almond topping and 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.

Make the cake batter

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

  2. Melt the chocolate over hot water.

  3. Mix the melted chocolate with the butter.

  4. Combine the butter‑chocolate mixture with sugar, flour, eggs, milk, and baking powder in a bowl.

  5. Pour the batter into a prepared baking pan.

Bake and make the icing

  1. Bake until done.

  2. Boil ½ pint of water.

  3. Pour the boiled water over 4 cups of powdered sugar.

  4. Boil the mixture until it forms a soft ball in cold water.

  5. Beat the reserved egg whites until stiff.

  6. Pour the syrup over the beaten egg whites.

  7. Beat until cool.

  8. Add vanilla and tartaric acid to the icing.

Assemble

  1. Spread the icing between the layers.

  2. Top 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
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cake a tender crumb.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the cake rises and becomes light.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and helps it brown and stay moist.
Baker's chocolate
Adds chocolate flavor and deep color to the batter.

The step that matters

Boil the syrup to soft ball stage. Sugar syrup must reach the right concentration to set properly. Too little boiling leaves the icing runny; too much makes it hard and grainy once beaten with the egg whites.

“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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