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Chocolate Macaroons a LA Aimee Delmonico

Chocolate macaroons made with almonds, powdered sugar, egg whites, and cocoa.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and cocoa work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 51 recipes. Both carry acetylpyrazine, which smells roast. The science ↓

Chocolate Macaroons a LA Aimee Delmonico

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Peel and pound the almonds until fine.

  2. Mix the almond paste with powdered sugar and egg whites for 5 minutes.

  3. Add melted cocoa and mix well for 2 minutes.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a tube.

  5. Prepare a baking pan with a sheet of brown paper.

Shape and bake

  1. Pipe the mixture into rounds the size of a quarter, spaced ½ inch apart.

  2. Cover with a wet napkin for 1 second to shape.

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

  4. Cool on a table for 1 hour before removing from the paper.

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 + cocoatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together51 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  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 + cocoatop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together956 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sweet almonds
Provide the main body and nutty flavour of the macaroons.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and bulk, helping the mixture hold its shape.
Egg whites
Give structure and binding so the rounds hold together while baking.
Melted cocoa
Adds chocolate flavour and colour, and some fat that softens the texture.

The step that matters

Piping the rounds and resting them before baking. The mixture is stiff and sugar-rich, so spacing and shaping must be even or the rounds may spread unevenly. Letting the piped rounds rest and skin over before baking helps them keep their shape and rise evenly in the oven.

Swap the cocoa

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

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Brazil nutfits better
  4. Cocoathe 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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