Name: Light Macaroons
Ingredients: 2 lbs sugar; 5 or 6 oz bitter almonds; 1 lb sweet almonds; whites of 4 or 5 eggs

Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Light Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

2 lbs sugar
5 or 6 oz bitter almonds
1 lb sweet almonds
whites of 4 or 5 eggs

Directions

Cut the almonds into small pieces instead of pounding them.
Pound the sugar until fine.
Sift some sugar over the bitter almonds through a fine sieve.
Place the almonds at the mouth of the oven and brown them lightly.

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.

Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,645 recipes

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