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Dessert

Bitter Almond Macaroons

A sweet treat made from bitter and sweet almonds, egg whites, and castor sugar, shaped into small round macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 ↓

Bitter Almond Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

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 almonds

  1. Blanch and dry the bitter and sweet almonds.

Make the paste

  1. Pound the almonds in a mortar with the egg whites until smooth.

  2. Add the castor sugar and mix thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Transfer the paste to a piping bag fitted with a round nozzle.

  2. Squeeze the paste onto wafer paper in small round shapes.

  3. Dab your finger in cold water and touch the tops of the macaroons to make them shine.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

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

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Bitter almonds
Add a strong almond aroma and flavour to the macaroons.
Sweet almonds
Form the bulk of the paste, giving body and a mild almond flavour.
Egg whites
Bind the ground almonds into a smooth paste and help the macaroons set.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the macaroons and helps give them a crisp, dry-set surface when baked.

The step that matters

Pound the almonds with the egg whites until smooth. A smooth paste holds its shape when piped and bakes evenly. Lumps of almond can cause uneven spreading and cracking in the finished macaroons.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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