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Dessert

Moist Macaroons

A sweet almond-based cookie with candied orange peel, angelica, and orange flowers, baked until lightly golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and orange are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,125 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Moist Macaroons

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the mixture

  1. Pound the almonds with the orange-flower water.

  2. Combine the almond mixture with the sugar in a saucepan over medium heat.

  3. Stir until the mixture begins to string when you lift the spoon.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, then add the egg whites and mix thoroughly.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the mixture into oval forms and place them on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until lightly golden.

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 + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  2. Almond + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Orange + angelicatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together159 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 fat, giving the macaroons their dense, moist, nutty texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the mixture and, when heated, thickens it so the shaped pieces hold their form.
Egg whites
Bind the mixture and add structure, helping the macaroons set as they bake.
Double orange-flower water
Adds a floral aroma that flavors the almond mixture.

The step that matters

Stir until the mixture strings. Cooking the almond and sugar mixture until it forms threads when the spoon is lifted means it has thickened and lost some water. This helps the shaped macaroons hold their oval form and keeps them moist rather than runny.

Swap the angelica

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Angelicathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, orange, 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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