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Dessert

Spanish Macaroons

A sweet almond-based macaroon flavored with cinnamon and orange rind, baked into small balls.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Spanish Macaroons

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 almond mixture

  1. Boil the sugar until it reaches the soft ball stage.

  2. Add the pounded almonds and cinnamon, then simmer gently over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  3. After 10 minutes, add the egg yolks and stir over medium heat until the mixture is firm and compact.

  4. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Shape and bake

  1. Grease your hands with sweet almond oil, then roll the mixture into small balls.

  2. Place the balls on wafer sheets on baking sheets.

  3. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 flavor of the macaroons.
Egg yolks
Bind the mixture and help it set firm as it is stirred over heat.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and, when boiled, helps give it a firm, cohesive structure.
Ground cinnamon
Adds warm aroma and spice to the almond mixture.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolks over medium heat. Egg yolks thicken and set as they are heated, but too much heat can scramble them. Stirring steadily and watching for the mixture to turn firm and compact keeps the texture smooth and cohesive.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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