Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Lemon Macaroons
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the mixture
Grate the rind of the lemon and add it to a bowl with the powdered sugar.
Strain the lemon juice and add it to the bowl.
Beat the eggs until light, then stir them into the mixture and beat well.
Add the flour gradually until the mixture is thick enough to form into balls.
Shape and bake
Moisten your hands with cold water and shape the mixture into balls the size of a plum.
Place the balls on buttered parchment paper and bake at 300°F (150°C) without browning.
Check for doneness by trying one; if done, remove them from the paper with a knife.
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.
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Eggs
- Beaten eggs add structure and lift, helping the batter hold its shape.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the macaroons and dissolves easily into the mixture for a fine texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the mixture so it holds together when shaped into balls.
- Lemon
- Rind and juice add aroma and acidity for a bright flavor.
The step that matters
Baking without browning. Baking at a low temperature sets the structure and keeps the sugar from caramelizing, so the macaroons stay pale instead of turning brown and drying out.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, flour. 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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