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Dessert

Macaroon Tarts

Macaroon Tarts are small pastry shells filled with raspberry jam and topped with almond mixture, then baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the almond mixture

  1. Grate the almond paste.

  2. In a bowl, combine grated almond paste, sugar, egg whites, and water.

Fill and bake

  1. Fill each pastry shell with a small teaspoon of raspberry jam.

  2. Spread a teaspoon of the almond mixture over the jam in each shell.

  3. Dust with powdered sugar.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 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. 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. Sugar + eggtop 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. 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

Almond paste
Provides the main almond flavour and a chewy, dense texture once baked.
Egg whites
Set during baking to bind the almond mixture and give it a light structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the topping brown in the oven.
Raspberry jam
Adds fruity sweetness and acidity under the almond layer.
Short crust pastry shells
Hold the filling and form a crisp base for the tarts.

The step that matters

Combining the almond mixture. The almond paste must be broken down into a smooth, spreadable mixture. Too much water thins it, so it can run into the jam instead of sitting on top, while too little leaves lumps that tear the topping as it is spread.

Swap the raspberry

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, 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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