Skip to main content
Dessert

Bitter Almond Macaroons

A sweet treat made from bitter almonds, Jordan almonds, powdered sugar, egg whites, and lemon peel, baked into small cookies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Bitter Almond Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch and peel the almonds, then cut them lengthwise into thin shreds.

Make the paste

  1. In a bowl, combine the sifted powdered sugar, egg whites, and lemon peel. Mix until you have a stiff paste, then fold in the cut almonds.

  2. If the paste is too stiff, add half an egg white.

Shape and bake

  1. Scoop portions the size of a small walnut onto parchment paper, leaving 2 inches between each. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) without coloring them.

  2. Remove the macaroons from the paper and place them on a sieve.

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 + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Bind the paste and give the macaroons their light, airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the paste and helps it hold together as a stiff mixture.
Bitter almonds
Provide the main almond flavor and the chewy, nutty body of the macaroons.
Jordan almonds
Add almond bulk and texture through the cut shreds folded into the paste.

The step that matters

Baking without coloring. The macaroons should bake slowly at a low temperature so they dry and set without browning. High heat would brown the sugar and almond proteins quickly, causing bitter flavor and an uneven finish.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, lemon):

  1. Pistachiofits about as well
  2. Milletfits about as well
  3. Almondthe original
  4. Chickpeafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, lemon. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes