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Dessert

Almond Macaroons

Almond macaroons are sweet almond cakes made with powdered sugar and egg whites, baked until lightly browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 ↓

Almond 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.

Prepare the almond paste

  1. Blanch the almonds and remove the skins. Dry them completely.

  2. Pound the almonds in a mortar to a smooth paste, adding a few drops of water to prevent oiliness.

  3. Mix in the powdered sugar and beaten egg whites until smooth.

Shape and bake

  1. Line a baking dish with buttered paper and drop spoonfuls of the mixture two inches apart.

  2. Top each with three or four almond pieces.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 10 minutes.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavor of the macaroon paste.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the paste hold its shape while baking.
Egg whites
Bind the almond paste and give the macaroons a light, set structure when baked.

The step that matters

Pound the almonds to a smooth paste. Almonds that stay coarse or turn oily will not bind well with the sugar and egg whites. A few drops of water keep the paste smooth and workable, so the macaroons hold their shape instead of spreading or greasing the paper.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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