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Dessert

Spanish Macaroons

A sweet treat made from sugar, egg whites, and optional colorings, baked into a firm, airy confection.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Spanish Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Mix in the sugar until well combined.

Shape

  1. Roll the mixture out to 1 inch thick.

  2. Cut out shapes from the rolled mixture.

  3. Let the cutouts stand for 1 hour.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until set.

  2. Ice the macaroons once they are cold.

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. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Egg + chocolatetop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they trap air and help the macaroons set in structure as they bake.
Sugar
Sweetens the macaroons and, with the egg whites, gives the mixture body and a dry, crisp surface.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Stiff egg whites hold the air that gives the macaroons lift and a light interior. Under-beaten whites collapse, so the cutouts spread and bake up dense.

“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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