Name: Pistachio Macaroons
Ingredients: 8 ounces pistachios; 5 egg whites; 12 ounces castor sugar

Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pistachio Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

8 ounces pistachios
5 egg whites
12 ounces castor sugar

Directions

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

Prepare the mixture

Blanch and dry the pistachios.
Pound the pistachios very fine in a mortar with the egg whites.
Add the castor sugar and mix well.

Shape and bake

Dress the mixture on small rounds of wafer paper.
Sprinkle grain sugar over them and press your finger in the center to make a hole.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

Finish

After baking, fill the holes with pistachio icing.

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.

Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pistachio + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,233 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Pistachio + eggtop 29% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together822 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Pistachios: Provide the main nutty flavor and the dense, moist body of the macaroons.
Egg whites: Bind the nut paste and trap air, giving the macaroons structure and a light, chewy interior.
Castor sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the surface set and brown during baking.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C). Oven heat dries the outside of the shaped mixture and sets the egg white structure. If the oven is too hot, the tops brown before the centers set; if too cool, the macaroons spread and stay soft and sticky.