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Dessert

Moist Macaroons

A sweet almond-based treat flavored with candied orange peel, green angelica, and orange flowers, baked into moist macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Moist Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the almond mixture

  1. Pound the almonds with the orange-flower water.

  2. Combine the almond mixture with sugar in a saucepan and stir over heat until it begins to string when lifted with a spoon.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool partially, then add the egg whites and mix thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into oval macaroons and place them on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until lightly colored.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Almond + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Orange + angelicatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together159 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Jordan almonds
Provide the main body and nutty almond flavor of the macaroons.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and, when heated, helps bind it and promote light browning.
Egg whites
Add moisture and structure, helping the mixture hold its shape and bind together.
Candied orange peel
Adds concentrated citrus sweetness and aromatic bitterness throughout the macaroons.

The step that matters

Stirring the almond and sugar mixture until it strings. Cooking the sugar syrup to the stringing stage concentrates it and controls moisture. Undercooking leaves the mixture too wet to hold its shape, while overcooking makes it dry and hard once baked.

Swap the angelica

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, orange, egg. 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.

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