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Dessert

Italian Macaroons

A sweet almond-based cookie made with egg whites and sugar, topped with almond slips.

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 ↓

Italian Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the mixture

  1. Finely grind the blanched almonds with the egg whites.

  2. Gradually add the sifted sugar, mixing well with a pestle.

  3. Incorporate 10 or 11 more egg whites gradually, testing the mixture by baking a small amount.

  4. If the macaroons are heavy, add 1 or 2 more egg whites.

Shape and bake

  1. Use a biscuit funnel to pipe the mixture onto wafer paper in walnut-sized pieces.

  2. Top each piece with 3 or 4 slips of blanched almonds.

  3. Bake on a wire rack or baking plate in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

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. Egg + sugartop 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

Blanched almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty flavour of the macaroon paste.
Egg whites
Bind the paste and give the macaroons their light, airy structure when baked.
Sifted loaf sugar
Sweetens the paste and helps it set into a crisp outer crust while baking.

The step that matters

Testing the mixture by baking a small amount. Egg whites differ in size and the almond paste varies in moisture, so the batter's consistency changes as egg white is added. A test bake shows whether the macaroons will spread too much or come out heavy, so you know whether to add more egg white before piping the whole batch.

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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