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Dessert

Macaroon Tarts

A pastry tart filled with jam and topped with an almond‑sugar macaroon mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond 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 ↓

Macaroon Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the shells

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line a muffin pan with rich pie dough.

  3. Half fill each tart with jam or marmalade.

Make the macaroon paste

  1. Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat for about 10 minutes until very light.

  3. Fold in the grated almonds.

  4. Divide the macaroon paste into equal portions.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll and shape into strips, dusting your hands with powdered sugar instead of flour.

  2. Place the strips on the baked tarts in parallel rows to cross each other diagonally.

  3. Return to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes at 300°F (150°C).

  4. Let the tarts cool in the pans until almost 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 + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Egg + almondtop 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

Egg whites
Whipped into a stiff froth, they give the paste its light, airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Beaten with the whites to add sweetness and help the paste become very light.
Grated almonds
Fold into the paste to add body, nutty flavour and a tender texture.
Jam or marmalade
Fills the tart base, adding sweetness and fruity acidity beneath the paste.
Rich pie dough
Forms the crisp, sturdy cup that holds the filling while it bakes.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites and sugar. Whites must be beaten to a stiff froth and sugar added gradually so the foam stays stable. Under-beaten or collapsed whites produce a dense paste that does not hold its strips well.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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