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Dessert

Hazel-nut Macaroons

A sweet treat made from hazelnut paste, egg whites, and sugar, baked into small rounds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Hazel-nut Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pound the hazelnut kernels in a mortar until they form a paste.

  2. Gradually add the egg whites, stirring to combine.

  3. Stir in the castor sugar and mix until smooth.

Shape and bake

  1. Arrange the mixture in rounds on wafer paper.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 30 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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Hazelnut kernels
Provide the main nutty flavour and the oily, paste-forming base of the macaroons.
Egg whites
Bind the paste and help the macaroons hold their shape and set when baked.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the macaroons and helps them dry to a crisp, lightly browned surface.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites gradually. Adding the whites slowly and stirring well lets them blend evenly into the nut paste without deflating or loosening it too much, so the rounds keep their shape in the oven.

“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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