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Dessert

Macaroon Tarts

Almond tarts filled with raspberry jam, made with pastry, ground almonds, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and raspberry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 552 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Macaroon Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Mix the ground almonds and sugar together.

  3. Add enough beaten egg whites to moisten the mixture nicely.

Fill and bake

  1. Line patty tins with the pastry.

  2. Put a little raspberry jam in the bottom of each tin.

  3. Fill with the almond mixture and smooth with a knife dipped in cold water.

  4. Decorate with strips of pastry across the top.

  5. Bake in the preheated oven 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. Almond + raspberrytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together552 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + raspberrytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,101 recipes

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

  5. Egg + almondtop 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

Ground almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty almond flavour of the filling.
Egg whites
Bind the almond and sugar mixture and help it hold together when baked.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown as it bakes.
Raspberry jam
Adds fruity sweetness and acidity beneath the almond filling.
Puff or flaky pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky case and top that hold the filling.

The step that matters

Moistening the almond mixture. Add the egg whites gradually until the mixture is moist enough to hold its shape but not wet. Too much liquid makes the filling loose and greasy, while too little leaves it dry and crumbly.

Swap the raspberry

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, almond, sugar. 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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