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Dessert

Macaroons

A sweet almond-based confection made with orange‑flower water, egg whites, sugar, and baked on wafer paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Macaroons

Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Macaroons

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the paste

  1. Blanch the almonds and pound them with the orange‑flower water.

  2. Whisk the egg whites to a froth.

Mix and shape

  1. Mix the egg whites and sifted sugar with the almond paste.

  2. Lay a sheet of wafer paper on a tin.

  3. Drop the mixture onto the wafer paper in small cakes.

Bake

  1. Bake until set.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  5. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

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

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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 body and rich flavour of the macaroon paste.
Egg whites
Whisked to a froth, they add lightness and help the cakes set structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps it bind and set as it bakes.
Orange-flower water
Adds a fragrant aroma and moisture to the almond paste.

The step that matters

Whisk the egg whites to a froth. Egg whites hold air only when whisked to a stable foam. Under-whipped whites leave the cakes dense, while over-whipped whites turn dry and grainy and lose their ability to blend smoothly with the sugar and almond paste.

Swap the orange

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

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

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

More macaroons recipes

Almond 89Coconut 62Chocolate 43Oatmeal 33Hickory Nut 16Peanut 11 See all 48 →

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