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Dessert

Pistachio Macaroons

A sweet biscuit made from bitter almonds, sugar, pistachio kernels, vanilla sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Pistachio Macaroons

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.

Prepare the mixture

  1. Pound the bitter almonds with the egg whites until thoroughly pulverized.

  2. Mix in the sifted sugar, shredded pistachio kernels, and vanilla sugar in a basin.

Shape and bake

  1. Fill a biscuit press with the mixture and form round balls the size of a walnut.

  2. Place the macaroons on a sheet wafer laid on baking sheets.

  3. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until they are lightly colored.

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 + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pistachio + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Bitter almonds
Provide the main almond flavour and the bulk of the dough's structure.
Egg whites
Bind the ground almonds and sugar into a cohesive, shapeable dough.
Sifted sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the macaroons dry and brown in the oven.
Shredded pistachio kernels
Add nutty flavour and texture to the dough.

The step that matters

Pound the almonds with the egg whites until thoroughly pulverized. Fully breaking down the almonds releases their oils and creates a smooth, even paste. Under-pounded pieces leave a gritty texture and uneven structure in the baked macaroons.

Swap the pistachio

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

  1. Hazelnutfits about as well
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiothe original
  4. Macadamia nutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, vanilla, 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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