Name: Macaroon Tarts
Ingredients: 2 lbs pie crust; 1 lb powdered sugar; 1 lb granulated sugar; 1 lb almond paste; 2 oz flour; Lemon flavor

Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Macaroon Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Cut out pie crust with a round cutter for cookies.
Place each piece in a tin cup pan.

Make and fill

Mix powdered sugar, granulated sugar, almond paste, flour, and lemon flavor.
Fill the cups half full with the macaroon mixture.

Bake

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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.

Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,655 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together30,404 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pie crust: Forms the edible cup that holds the filling while it bakes.
Almond paste: Provides the chewy, moist texture and nutty flavor of the macaroon filling.
Powdered sugar: Dissolves readily into the batter, adding sweetness and a fine, smooth texture.
Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the filling set and brown during baking.
Flour: Gives the filling body so it holds its shape rather than spreading.