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Dessert

Macaroon Bisque

A chilled dessert bisque made from macaroon crumbs, cherries, gelatin, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cherry and orange work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 689 recipes. Both carry 2,4-nonadienal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Macaroon Bisque

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Combine macaroon crumbs and chopped cherries in a bowl.

  2. Add cherry juice and orange juice, then let stand overnight.

Make the cream mixture

  1. Dissolve gelatin in a little whipped cream.

  2. Mix the dissolved gelatin with powdered sugar.

  3. Add the gelatin-sugar mixture to the crumb mixture.

  4. Beat the whipped cream until very stiff.

  5. Fold the stiff whipped cream into the crumb mixture slowly.

Chill and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a mold.

  2. Pack the mold in ice and salt.

  3. Let stand for several hours.

  4. Decorate with macaroons before serving.

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. Cherry + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together689 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  2. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroon crumbs
Provide the main body and flavor of the bisque as they soak in the juices.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled in the mold.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and a creamy texture through its trapped air.
Orange juice
Adds acidity and fruity flavor and moisture to the crumbs.
Maraschino cherries
Add sweetness, color and a bright cherry flavor.

The step that matters

Fold the stiff whipped cream into the crumb mixture slowly. Folding gently keeps the air in the stiffly whipped cream. Deflating it makes the bisque dense rather than light and airy.

Swap the cherry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pineapplefits better
  4. Cherrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, sugar, orange, cream. 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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