Name: Chocolate Macaroons
Ingredients: ½ pound blanched and chopped almonds; ½ pound sugar; 2 sticks chocolate; 2½ tablespoons flour; 2 eggs; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon cloves

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Chocolate Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make and bake

In a bowl, mix the almonds, sugar, melted chocolate, flour, eggs, cinnamon, and cloves until well combined.
Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a buttered baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake in the preheated oven until browned.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + chocolatetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,733 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds: Provide the bulk and nutty body of the macaroons.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the surface brown during baking.
Chocolate: Gives flavor and color to the macaroons.
Flour: Helps bind the mixture so the spoonfuls hold their shape.
Eggs: Bind the mixture and help set the macaroons as they bake.

Swap the clove

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

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Allspicefits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, chocolate, flour, egg, cinnamon. 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.