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Macaroons Souffles

A light almond-based sweet made by baking a firm paste of ground almonds, sugar, and egg whites.

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 ↓

Macaroons Souffles

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the paste

  1. Pound the almonds in a mortar until smooth, adding a little sugar and egg whites to prevent oiliness.

  2. Once the almonds are pulverized, gradually add the remaining sugar and egg whites, keeping the paste firm.

Shape and bake

  1. Cover baking sheets with wafer paper and form small round balls of the paste, placing them at least 1 inch apart.

  2. Brush the tops with a wet paste brush and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until light fawn color.

Finish

  1. Once baked and cooled, remove any excess wafer paper and store the macaroons in a dry place.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Almonds
Provide the bulk of the paste, giving the macaroons their nutty flavor and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the paste and helps keep it moist and firm during baking.
Egg whites
Bind the almond paste and provide structure as the macaroons set in the oven.

The step that matters

Keeping the paste firm. Adding sugar and egg whites gradually while the paste is still firm keeps it from becoming runny. A loose paste spreads in the oven instead of holding its rounded shape.

Swap the almond

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

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