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Dessert

Almond Macaroons

A sweet biscuit made from almond paste, powdered sugar, and egg whites, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Work together almond paste and powdered sugar on a smooth board or marble slab.

  2. Gradually add egg whites and mix until the mixture is perfectly smooth.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture using a pastry bag and tube on a tin sheet covered with buttered paper, placing them ½ inch apart.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

  3. If you prefer them soft, bake them slightly.

Finish

  1. After baking, invert the paper and wet it with a cloth wrung out of cold water to easily remove the macaroons.

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. Egg + sugartop 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

Almond paste
Provides the almond flavor and the chewy, dense body of the macaroons.
Egg whites
Lighten the mixture and set during baking to give the macaroons their structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the mixture and helps it form a smooth, workable paste.

The step that matters

Mixing until perfectly smooth. Gradually adding the egg whites and mixing until smooth ensures an even batter that bakes uniformly and shapes cleanly. Lumps of almond paste left in the mix can cause uneven texture and spreading.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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.

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