Name: Chocolate Macaroons
Ingredients: 3 ounces Baker's chocolate; 3 egg whites; 1 pound powdered sugar

Why it works: Chocolate and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,404 recipes. Both carry guaiacol, which smells smoky, sweet. The science ↓

Chocolate Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

3 ounces Baker's chocolate
3 egg whites
1 pound powdered sugar

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.

Make the dough

Melt the chocolate over low heat.
Beat the egg whites and powdered sugar together until thick.
Stir in the melted chocolate.
Sift powdered sugar onto a clean surface.
Roll the mixture out to ¼ inch thick and cut into small rounds.

Bake and serve

Butter a baking pan and dust it with a mixture of flour and powdered sugar.
Place the cut pieces in the pan and bake at 400°F (200°C) until set.
Serve 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.

Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,404 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Chocolate + eggtop 24% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,448 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites: Whipped with sugar to give the dough lift and a light, airy structure.
Powdered sugar: Sweetens the dough and, with the whites, helps form a stable, sliceable mixture.
Baker's chocolate: Adds chocolate flavour and richness to the dough.

“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.