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Dessert

Macaroons, Spiced

A sweet almond-based cookie flavored with cinnamon, cloves, preserved lemon, orange peel, and lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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 ↓

Macaroons, Spiced

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare a paste with the almonds and sugar.

  2. Add cinnamon, pounded cloves, preserved lemon, chopped orange peel, and grated lemon rind.

  3. Mix all ingredients together in a mortar.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into macaroons and place them on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake carefully 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 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
Form the base of the paste, giving the macaroons their body and nutty flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps bind it into a paste that holds its shape.
Powdered cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the macaroons.
Preserved lemon
Adds bright, sharp citrus flavour that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Bake carefully until golden. Sugar and almonds brown quickly, so the macaroons can scorch on the outside before the inside sets. Watching for an even golden colour, rather than a set time alone, helps them bake through without burning.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, cinnamon, clove, orange. 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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