Name: Chocolate Drops
Ingredients: Baker's chocolate; French candy balls; almond meat; coarse sugar

Why it works: Chocolate and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,733 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Drops

Ingredients

Baker's chocolate
French candy balls
almond meat
coarse sugar

Directions

Finely chop Baker's chocolate and place it in a tin cup.
Set the cup over a steaming kettle to melt the chocolate.
Once melted, take the French candy balls and dip them into the chocolate using a fork.
While the chocolate sets, mold the almond meat into shapes.
Roll the molded almond shapes in coarse sugar to finish.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,733 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Almond + meattop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together486 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Chocolate + meattop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).