[Sca-cooks] Macarons

[Terry Decker]

A macaroon is a lightly baked confection of beaten egg white, sugar and 
grated, crushed or ground nuts.  The primary variation is in the proportions 
of the three main ingredients which can have a texture from a meringue 
cookie to a small cake.  Until the 20th Century, the nuts would have been 
almonds, possibly with some bitter almond for flavoring.  Flavorings such as 
orange peel, lemon peel, cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate were being added by 
the early 19th Century.  Macaroons with jam, jelly, or creme fillings are 
common.

The key point is macaroons are made from  a meringue base and use nut meal 
or flour rather than cereal flour in their manufacture.

Just to add to the confusion, there are recipes for baked marzipan which are 
labelled as being macaroons.

Bear

> So how would you define Macaron/Macaroon? What determines whether it is or 
> isn't one?
>
> I was initially assuming the word wasn't period, so I looked for examples 
> where people posted a period recipe and said it was similar to a macaroon.
>
> The main thing I seem to see is the use of a large amount of ground almond 
> instead of wheat or grain flour. But this may not hold if there are other 
> cookies that contain ground almond which aren't called macarons/macaroons.
>
> Yes, I'm wondering if I have enough info in my cookies-msg along with what 
> has been posted, to possibly create a macaroons-msg file.  As well as now 
> just being curious about these macarons/macaroons.  As well as the few I 
> posted I have other comments that don't specify a specific period recipe.
>
> Stefan