Why it works: Almond and sugar 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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the sweet and bitter almonds into small pieces.
Soak the bitter almonds in egg whites to whiten them.
Make the macaroons
Sift 1½ lbs of sugar over the almonds through a silk sieve.
Brown the almonds in the oven until they are a fine clear color.
Mix the browned almonds with the remaining sugar and 3 egg whites, adjusting the number of egg whites based on the consistency of the mixture.
Finish
Wet your hands and lightly touch the tops of the macaroons to make them shine.
Once cooled, remove the macaroons from the paper.
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.
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,645 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sweet almonds
- Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the macaroons.
- Bitter almonds
- Add a deeper, more pronounced almond flavor to the macaroons.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the mixture and helps form a crisp, dry crust as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Bind the almonds and sugar together and give the mixture its structure.
The step that matters
Browning the almonds. Almonds should reach a fine clear color. Under-browned almonds taste raw, while over-browned almonds turn bitter, because sugars and proteins brown quickly through the Maillard reaction.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Pecansfits about as well
- Almondthe original
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Milletfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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