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Dessert

Almond Macaroons

A sweet treat made from almonds, powdered sugar, rice flour, and beaten egg whites, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. 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 almonds

  1. Blanch and skin the almonds, then dry them on a sieve.

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

Make the batter

  1. Mix in the powdered sugar and rice flour.

  2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them into the almond mixture.

  3. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto paper, shaping them like walnuts.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until light brown and firm.

  2. Wet the underside of the paper to remove the macaroons.

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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Rice + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Almonds
Provide the main flavour and the paste that forms the body of the macaroons.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture hold together as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whipped to stiff peaks, they lighten the batter and give the macaroons their structure.
Rice flour
Adds a little starch to help the macaroons set firm while keeping them tender.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Under-beaten whites fold in poorly and leave the macaroons dense and flat, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy and lose their ability to blend smoothly with the almond paste.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rice, flour, 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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