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Dessert

Almond Macaroons

Almond Macaroons are sweet biscuits made from ground almonds, sugar, egg whites, and optional bitter almonds, baked until pale brown.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the almonds

  1. Blanch the almonds, dry them, and place them in a cool oven to dry completely.

  2. Pound the almonds into a smooth paste with a little egg white.

Make the batter

  1. Whisk the egg whites to a firm froth.

  2. Gradually mix in the sugar with the almond paste and whisk until well combined.

Bake

  1. Drop the mixture onto wafer paper.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until pale brown.

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Almond + eggtop 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

Jordan almonds
Provide the main nutty flavour and the bulk of the paste.
Fine sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the mixture set and brown in the oven.
Egg whites
Whisked to a froth, they lighten the mixture and give the macaroons structure.

The step that matters

Drying the almonds completely. Any moisture left in the almonds makes the paste wet and sticky, so the macaroons spread and fail to hold their shape in the oven.

Swap the almond

The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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