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Macaroon Biscuits

Almond-based biscuits made with sugar, rice, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,456 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Macaroon Biscuits

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the ground almonds, caster sugar, and ground rice.

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form, then fold them into the almond mixture.

Shape and bake

  1. Spoon teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto wafer paper.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until golden 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 + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + ricetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,744 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

Ground almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the biscuits.
Caster sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the biscuits brown as they bake.
Ground rice
Adds a slightly firmer, drier texture to the mixture.
Egg whites
Whisked to stiff peaks, they give the mixture lift and bind it together.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whisked whites trap air that gives lift; folding gently keeps that air in, so the biscuits stay light rather than dense or flat.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rice, 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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