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Dessert

Almond Macaroons

Almond macaroons are small pastries filled with raspberry jam and topped with a mixture of egg whites, ground almonds, sugar, and almond essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and raspberry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 552 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Almond Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line small tins with short pastry.

  3. Place a small quantity of raspberry jam in each tin on top of the pastry.

Make and bake

  1. In a bowl, mix the egg whites, ground almonds, caster sugar, and almond essence.

  2. Spoon the mixture on top of the jam in each tin.

  3. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden.

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 + raspberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together552 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Sugar + raspberrytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,101 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. 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 or mixed into the batter, they give the macaroon mixture structure and help it set as it bakes.
Ground almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty almond flavour of the filling, giving it a dense, chewy texture.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown to a golden colour in the oven.
Raspberry jam
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture beneath the almond mixture, sitting between it and the pastry.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. Baking for the stated time until golden matters because the sugar and proteins brown and the almond mixture sets. Underbaking leaves it soft and gooey, while overbaking dries it out and makes it tough.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, almond, 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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