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Dessert

Peanut Macaroons

A sweet baked treat made with egg whites, flour, peanuts, sugar, cinnamon, cream of tartar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,341 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Peanut Macaroons

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the meringue

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

  2. Mix cream of tartar and sugar together, then add to the egg whites, beating until very stiff.

Fold and bake

  1. Combine flour, cinnamon, and peanuts, then fold into the egg mixture.

  2. Drop spoonfuls onto a greased baking sheet and bake at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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 + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cinnamon + peanuttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together278 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 into foam, they create the light structure that holds the macaroons together.
Granulated sugar
Stabilizes the whipped whites and adds sweetness and browning as the macaroons bake.
Cream of tartar
Acidifies the egg whites, helping them whip to a stable, stiff foam.
Finely chopped peanuts
Add body, texture and nutty flavor to the batter.
Flour
Adds a small amount of structure so the macaroons hold their shape.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until very stiff. Under-whipped whites collapse when the dry ingredients are folded in, and the macaroons spread and bake flat. Stiff, stable foam traps air that gives lift and a light crumb.

Swap the peanut

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, cinnamon, cream, 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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