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Dessert

Citron Macaroons

Citron macaroons are light, airy cookies made with egg whites, citron, almonds, and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Citron Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the batter

  1. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat until very stiff.

  2. Fold in the sifted powdered sugar.

  3. Mix the almonds, citron, and flour, then add to the egg mixture.

  4. Finally, add the grated lemon rind and lemon juice.

Bake and serve

  1. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 3 to 4 minutes.

  3. Then reduce the heat to 300°F (150°C) and bake for about 20 minutes longer.

  4. Remove the macaroons from the pan while hot using a pancake turner or spatula.

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. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Egg whites
Whipped to a stiff foam that gives the macaroons their airy structure.
Powdered sugar
Folded into the whites to sweeten and stabilize the meringue.
Blanched almonds
Provide the ground body, nutty flavor, and chewy texture of the cookie.
Flour
Adds a small amount of structure so the batter holds its shape while baking.
Citron
Adds candied citrus flavor and moist, chewy pieces throughout the cookie.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until very stiff. Under-whipped whites collapse when folded, and the air bubbles trapped in the meringue are what lift and set the macaroons in the oven.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, flour, almond. 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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