September 9, 2020 • 42 mins
These pretty, meringue-based cookies are a delightful treat – but can be a disaster to attempt making. Anney and Lauren explore the convoluted history and complex structural science of macarons.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to say a production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we're
talking about macarons. Macarons, which I definitely mispronounced. Again, I
took French for over a decade. I think I mispronounced
it for years much Americanized pronunciations of it. Yeah, I'm
(00:29):
probably over over doing the French when I try to
say it with a French accent, I should probably just
default back to like macaron, like macaron. That's how it is.
Now you need to go over the top French like that.
And now all of our French listeners have clicked off
(00:50):
and are starting the angry. Even try our best, we do.
We do. Also, I like it's I think we've mentioned
on this show before. Maybe maybe we haven't that. Yeah,
like every time we have an episode that's full of
of a lot of French words or names, um, we
(01:10):
wind up at some point like shaking our fist in
the air and going French um. And that is a
true story. And furthermore, Annie, I I need to update you.
I was having UM. I was in a production meeting
with UH with with Holly fry Um, who has some
friends and family who are French, and um, and oh gosh,
(01:32):
what was it that I was I don't I don't
remember the specific word. It was another food term because
of course it was something from from our show. But um,
but there was some word that I said and I
was like, Holly, like, I don't know if I'm saying
this right. Do you know if I'm saying this right?
How do you say this? And she was like, I
don't know, but I will ask and I got this
(01:53):
and I got this email back like on a weekend
a couple of days later, like, well, I asked my
French friends and they say that you are supposed to
pronounce that end. I think it's an end tu that
the t at the end, but you're supposed to say
it so that no one can hear it. Yeah, it's
(02:16):
for all for you. French is a very rewarding language. French.
Oh yeah, and you know what, the same could be
said about macaron because I went through a phase pretty
(02:37):
soon after I started interning it how stuff works, where
I wanted to bake like everything, I didn't want to
do same recipe ever, and I wanted to keep trying. Okay, cool, yeah, yeah,
and I got it in my head because this was
around the time I found out what macaron were, because
I had never heard of them before, so I think
it's like two twelve. And so I was like, I'm
(02:58):
gonna try. I've heard horror stories, but I don't care
man is, and I won't be stopped. And I got
like a scale. I did the whole thing, and uh,
it's one of like three things that like totally I
would say it totally failed because they actually tasted like macarron.
They tasted good, but they like collapsed as though I
(03:21):
had reached out and touched a skeleton and it just
turned to dust. Oh, like like they were like they
were in an Indiana Jones movie and they you know, yes, um,
they were like they looked perfect when I first took
him out, but when I went to pick one up,
and I blame the humidity. I blame the humidity. And
(03:43):
I'm standing by that. Oh heck yeah. To be honest,
like I I love baking and I love new challenges,
and like, I dare not attempt this. I don't have
it in me right now. I need to set aside
at a period of time, and I'm feeling like like
I've had like a lot of winds, you know, and
I like need to like knock myself back down if
(04:05):
you or catapult myself into like total intolerability. Oh if
you succeed, right, yeah, because I they they seem they
seem very complicated. Um. I always have kind of Jankie
Evans in my life, and um, you know, like I
don't know, like I have friends who make them, but
(04:27):
I just assumed that they're wizards. Uh yeah, probably yeah. Um. Also,
I will say that the blog is fhere. Back when
the blog is fear was still really a thing. Um,
the term for failed macarons was was macar Wrong's. Oh yeah,
I like that. Yeah, I mean I guess that's what
(04:47):
it was. I actually, looking back on my experience, I'm
pretty proud of it because I got close. I think
they got really close. That's good enough for me. Oh yeah, done.
And flavor. Hey, it's always it's always most important how
it tastes. They really did taste good. Um. We I
was thinking we had that when we were at that
(05:09):
Bouddhan festival in New Orleans. All the way at the
top of the stairs, there was a booth that had
Macarrol and I got one that was like maple bourbon
bacon and it had a pipe bed and you like
injected it with something. I don't know, Oh, I believe you.
I'm not sure if I had. I think I was.
(05:30):
That was a weird day. Yeah. I don't think I
tried to eat that many desserts because I was like,
I am already going to make myself pretty ill with alcohol,
and I don't think that adding sugar on top of
that is a really good plan. No, it was definitely
at the very back. It was like the last thing
we were doing. Oh okay, yeah, yeah, but it was good.
(05:52):
Oh it sounds delicious. Um. Also drink responsibly, folks. Um. Also, also,
macaron day is March, so we are completely out of
season for that one. Well, you know, sometimes you just
gotta it's the savor savor wight every now and then
we accidentally do something that's timely. But yeah, super rare.
(06:14):
But I guess all of this brings us to our question. Yes,
what are they? Well? Macaron are a type of flowerless
meringue cookie made with a fine ground almonds these days,
typically served sandwiched with with a thin layer of some
kind of filling. Um. They are not a macaroon. Um,
(06:38):
although they are apparently related. I never knew this. This
is very exciting. Cannot wait for the history section anyway.
Macaroon in the United States generally refers to a sort
of denser, flowerless cookie made with a shredded coconut and
there's an extra oh in the in then there. Oh
(06:59):
that's what I like to uh and Okay, So so
to to to understand what this cookie is, UM, let's
let's talk about how you make them hypothetically, uh, and
the and the structures that get formed as you're doing that.
Because because in your in your average wheat flour cookie, UM,
(07:20):
the structure of the cookie, you know, like it's chew
and puff and crisp and whatever ratios you're you're going for. UM,
that structure comes from interactions that you introduce among butter, sugar, eggs,
and flour. But maringues are basically just egg whites and
sugar UM, sometimes buffed up by something like wheat flour
or in this case, almond flour. Yeah, and this is
(07:44):
one of the treatments of eggs that shows you just
how fascinating they really are. So the the primary protein
in egg whites is this ball shaped protein called OL,
and when it's just hanging out in an egg, it's
not really interacting that much with its with its fellow
protein molecules. It's just slipping by them, uh, forming that
(08:05):
you know, goopy watery liquid that egg whites are UM.
To make a meringue, you have to convince those albumin
molecules to form up with each other into a structure,
which is pretty easy to do really. Um. You just
beat the egg whites, and that physical force d natures
the proteins um, meaning that they unfold um, presenting these
(08:28):
positively and negatively charged ends um, which will then bond
up with each other in a structure, trapping molecules of
water and air in among them. So so the egg
whites go from from this goopy clear liquid to a soft,
opaque white foam UM that forms uh these little peaks
that will then kind of melt back down into the
(08:49):
mass or or or sink back down into the mass rather.
And at that point you wanna you wanna bore up
that that structure into something stiffer using granulated sugar, and
you beat that sugar in until stiff, shiny peaks have
formed UM that the sugar molecules work a little bit
like a like a glue, just kind of bonding everything together,
(09:12):
and that is a meringue. Um. If if you now,
a few things can go wrong here. Um and it
may have to do with what happened to to your
macarrong's it's accurate, but um so so if you overbeat
(09:34):
egg whites, um that those proteins that have have formed
these these bonds will keep on forming bonds to the
point that they'll start to force water molecules out and
um and that leads to the whites breaking. Or if
you don't take it quite that far, but you take
it like a little bit too far, cracks will form
in your cookies while they're baking. Um. Fat also will
(09:56):
destabilize meringue. So you've got to make sure that your
bowls and utensils are super clean. Oh yeah, no leftover grease.
I remember that. It's like what, yeah, it'll just make
them all slippy again. You don't want them to be slippy,
you want them to be structured. You know, that was
my first time making meringue. I remember reading the instructions
and being like this doesn't sound real. Tell me, I'm
(10:20):
going to see like mountains in this yeah. Yeah, because
it goes from goo to to like a like a
four times expansion of like yeah this foam muty foam
foam and you're just like what pretty much the incredible
edible egg y'all? Um. But so to um to make
a meringue into macron batter And there is a word
(10:44):
for this in French, and I don't remember what it is.
It's macaron with extra syllables anyway. Um. Yeah. So so
you you take your meringue and you carefully and gently
fold in a mixture of almond flour and powdered sugar, um,
making sure to press or a lot of the structure
of that egg white foam. Um. And if you've never
(11:04):
if you've never seen folding in action, um, it's a
it's it's sort of like oh gosh, like okay. So
so in order to do a folding, UM, you kind
of kind of sprinkle your your your dry ingredients over
the wet ingredients, and then you take your spatula and
um and stick it blade thin side in straight into
(11:27):
the center of of your mixture. And then you scrape
the bottom of the bowl and pull up a layer
of the of the stuff on the bottom and kind
of folded over the top of the rest of the
bowl like um, like you're making a bed or or
doing a comb over. And then you keep doing that,
(11:50):
you keep going down into the center and scraping the
bottom and combing it back over the top of the bowl,
and eventually this will all incorporate into a like a glossy,
flowing and slightly deflated next year. And then you pipe
that onto a pan in little rounds, and you allow
them to dry for like fifteen minutes or so, just
(12:10):
sitting out in the air, because that forms the skin
on the top of the cookies so that when they're
in the oven, steam won't try to rise out of
the tops and crack the tops. You want them to
be nice and smooth. Um. It'll be forced to escape
from the bottom instead, And that's what gives the baked
cookies a rise. Um. But be also what creates the
little like ridge of bubbles around the flat side of
(12:32):
a macaron shell. Um, which is the side that touches
the pan while it's baking. So yeah, yeah, bake them
and and then cool them and then you know, pipe
in a little bit of spread in a little bit
of ganash or butter cream or jam, create a sandwich
and then chill them to allow all of those flavors
to kind of meld in, everything to set up. And
the result is going to be, if you have done
(12:54):
this correctly, Um, a chewy cookie with this crisp outer
shell that also melts in your mouth and and as
this like gentle almond cherry kind of flavor. And then
with a burst of flavor and creamy texture from whatever
filling you use. Ah, so delightful. Um. The cookies are
often colored with food coloring, all kinds of bright or
pretty pastel shades. Um. The flavor possibilities are endless, endless, endless, endless, Uh,
(13:20):
you know, sweet or savory. The florals, teas, fruits, chocolate,
f gras, I you know, whatever you want. Yeah, I
think we talked about a gold one in our I'm
sure we did. Sure, it's it's a food, so ready
to add some edible gold to it? Yeah, they're already
(13:44):
kind of sch fancy looking. So I have to say,
I know this isn't but this whole thing has felt
like a personal attack on me. Um in my failure.
I'm sorry, No, No, it's okay. It's all warranted. But
I'm feeling a little like I gotta go overdeem myself
(14:06):
or something. I gotta get that rocky music playing. Oh
I can't do it. Oh no, no, no, and and
and that's the thing, like I mean, like, if you're
like like, you can do all of the all of
the beating and mixing and stuff perfectly. But then if
you're evan um cycles too hot or too cold or
never gets hot enough or gets too hot, or if
(14:29):
there's too much humidity in your apartment or whatever it
is that it is like it can be completely beyond
your control. That's I'm sticking to it. Stick into humidity.
It's very humid around these parts. It is. It is,
and sugar melts in water, and humidity is air water,
(14:52):
so it is. Well, let's say you're not like me,
and you managed to get your hands successfully made macarl
What about the nutrition? Uh, you know, they're they're pretty
low in calories, I guess, like for a single serving,
it's it's a little bit under a hundred calories, but
(15:14):
most of that is sugar. It's like seventeen grahams of sugar,
which is kind of a lot of sugar. Um yeah, dude.
Uh and and he just made the shocked face, so
like the emoji shocked me. Yeah, totally. Uh yeah. I
mean there's like a little bit of fat and protein
in there from the egg, but it's a I would
(15:35):
classify it solidly as a as a treat. Yeah, it's funny.
Uh And we're gonna talk about this morning a little bit.
But it was funny to me how many people were like,
it's a less guilty or permissible dessert is what they
were calling it. And I was like, sure, because you
could just have one. But I feel that's not usually
(15:56):
the case. Maybe that's just me and my friends. I
get sugared out after like about two about two, and
I'm like, this is more macarn than I intended to eat,
and I'm going to stop now. Yeah, they are very
very sweet, but I have a I have like kind
of a low tolerance for sugar, so I feel like
(16:17):
I use it too and through. But I still think
a lot of the stories I was reading was saying
one like well, sure, okay, I mean I don't know,
like they're they're technically kind of low fat and they're
gluten free, yes yes, yes, es yes, yeah, so we
(16:39):
do have some numbers for you. Oh gosh, we do. Yeah,
this really cracked me up because the macaron is often
compared to the cupcake. And after the tragic fall of
the cupcake and you can see a cupcake episode for
more on that, the macarrol stepped in to fill that
vac hume as the it dessert. Yeah yeah, yeah. It
(17:04):
was even called the new cupcake over seventy times in
various outlets by mid um and that that was a
big year for macrons. Someone over at Whole Foods Bakery team.
The Whole Foods Bakery team reported a growth of forty
in sales of macrons. Yeah um. Google searches in the
US reached their height in twelve. In the decade from twenty,
(17:28):
the macrones and market penetration increased by thirteen times. Yeah uh.
And each year Americans spend somewhere around thirty three billion
dollars on ready to eat desserts. The whole dessert market
is staggeringly bigger than that, but on raye to eat
desserts thirty three billion dollars. That pastries are one of
(17:49):
the most popular of those ready to eat desserts, and
macrons are generally categorized under that and they account for
um pastries account for sales of fourteen point three billion
dollars and sales are going up by that numbers estimated
to reach seventeen point two billion. H The average American
(18:13):
is expected to spend about fifty dollars on pastries. Now,
I was curious about that, because I believe this was compiled.
This market report was compiled in I'm like, well, there's
a pandemic now, so how is that going to affect though?
Is it going way up because we're stressed and we
want pastries or is it going down because it's not
(18:34):
food where you don't have rooms unemployed? All right? Yeah,
the stream market question. I I need the I need
the think piece on what COVID nineteen has done to
the macarol market for shore too. I was looking for it,
but I didn't find it. Group holder owner of French
(18:55):
mac around powerhouses law Dura, Chateau Blanc and Paul reports
a year early revenue of about one billion dollars yep,
and they estimate about sixty of that is due to
sales of macrons. What yeah, m M, it's a macron empire.
I'm telling you, Okay, yeah, they do ship all over
(19:15):
the world, so you know. M yeah, a lot of
a invested eighty million euros. Eighty million euros into automating
macaron capable of producing three hundred thousand an hour compared
to about three thousand per day of a small scale bakery. Uh.
(19:37):
And one of the spokespeople over there said, instead of
freezing their macrons, they like to call it hibernation. So
I like another big name in macrons, Pierre Hermy claims
that any chef who says they don't freeze their macrons
is a liar. No bang chiche. And there's a museum,
(20:02):
at least one museum if anyone's ever been. Oh please
please please, oh my gosh. And a part of the
appeal of the macaron does have to do with the
fact that is a dessert, but yes, it can be
advertised under these things. It's like dairy free or gluten free,
relatively low calorie, while at the same time being seen
(20:25):
as a bit of a luxury. They're also pretty, which
is a big bus during these are times of Instagram
and social media. And they're portable and convenient. And I
even read a whole article where this is one thing
millennials aren't killing. Well, well, we're just choosy. It's like
(20:50):
the list of what we've destroyed is miles long. What
we haven't destroyed is macaron. This is like, this is
like how the only non for d z Ac is
let us, Yes, and even let us with sometimes in
afriage sometimes Yeah, so you know, huh huh indeed, well
(21:13):
you know we we do have the history of how
all of this happened, um, how how it grew to
be the kind of pastry that might be ripe for
millennial killing but has not been. But first we've got
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
(21:37):
we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So the
history on this one gets very very messy and complicated,
just like my attempt at baking them oh self burn uh.
And the history of cookies goes back much further than
than where we're going to start here today. But well,
(21:58):
I don't know, not much further but further. Uh, just
put that out there. Um. And also, yes, the macaroon
and macaron have a surprisingly complex history together and tied. Yeah,
macaroons will have to be a different episode, um, but
we're going to touch a lot on it. Here. Yes,
so summer countings placed the macarons beginnings all the way
(22:20):
back to eight hundred twenty seven CE, when arriving Arab
troops from modern day Tunisia set up an emirate in Sicily.
They brought with them many of their technologies and foods,
including some dough wrapped almond paste cookies. These cookies were
definitely not the first of their kind. Others similar to
them have been consumed at celebrations for the Zoroastrian New
(22:42):
Year centuries prior, going way back UM. Over the decades
and centuries after their arrival in Sicily, these desserts evolved
into a handful of other almond based treats like mars
upon which probably would have been said differently back then,
but essentially what is sweet think of modern day marspan um.
(23:03):
At the same time, Cecily was making advancements in another
popular food item in that region, pasta. Almond based desserts
impastas often merged and influenced each other in Sicily. A
lot of pasta recipes from that time had versions both
savory and sweet. Impastas made from almond could be eaten
(23:24):
during lights, so that was a big plus. The predecessor
to the calzone calzone. It was popularly made with either
cheese or almond. Well. Yeah. Early versions of these cookies
made in Venetian monasteries that may have been called priest
belly buttons are monkst belly buttons. I mean, I guess, yeah,
(23:45):
straight to the point, why not? Why not? The Sicilian
word macarooney, first used to refer to two similarly sweet
doughey pasta like foods, originated in twelve at seventy nine,
and was either derived from Arabic or Italian and eventually
led to the words macaroni, macaroon and yes macaron yes,
(24:13):
before on that in a second. Some of these earliest
recipes from macarooney. A thirteen fifty recipe described a butter
and cheese dumping made by hand in fifteenth century one
called for egg rose and water and white flower based pasta,
also with butter and cheese. They yeah, they were like
these pasta kind of hybrids, um for with the word
(24:35):
that would eventually become a basis from macaron. So by
the fifteen hundreds, almond based cookies from Sicily had made
it to the rest of Italy and Spain, France, and
England manifest of Desserts included the word macaroon. Macaroon appeared
in English soon after, replacing the French suffix all with un,
(24:57):
which was a fairly common thing that happened at the time. Yes,
the cookie possibly came to France in fifteen thirty three
with Katherine de Medici and her pastry chefs, who may
or may not have made and sold them. And meanwhile,
meringue was developed, probably in the sixteen hundreds and possibly
(25:19):
in the Swiss town of my Ringen. Makes sense, makes sense. Sure, Sure,
that's all you need. If I ever in doubt. If
a food has a similar name to a place, that's
where it came from. That's definitely absolutely where it came from.
(25:40):
No need to investigate historically any further. That is the
law food history. UM. The first known recorded recipe for
macarons appeared in a cookbook Martha Washington. Yes that when
her family brought over yeah with them to North America,
the book of Cookery, which was most likely also compiled
(26:00):
in the six hundreds. UM. It called for taking a
bunch of almonds, blanching them and beating them with rose water.
You add a lot of sugar, egg, whites, more rosewater,
some other stuff, bake them up in oven hot enough
for men chit, which is a fine French bread. I
love reading old time recipes because I'm like, oh, what
(26:21):
does this mean? A lot of it seems like, you know,
like how you give directions sometimes where you like you
go to the blue house, you'll see it, you can't
miss it, you take all right, It's like that kind
of vague, but I guess people understood it at the time.
I think that most of the time cookbooks from from
that era weren't. We're just kind of reminders of how
(26:43):
to go about a thing. Yeah, not a literal recipe
that you would just be like, what does this look
like at the end? Right? Well, I very much appreciate
reading them and trying to figure out what in the world.
At this point, modern French zine was really starting to
take off. To Francois Pierre de la Verens sixteen fifty
(27:05):
two edition of The French cook included a recipe closer
to our modern day macarons, replacing Arab ingredients like rosewater
with something more French. I remember, specifically, like more egg
whites instead of the rose water. In some instances, Several
similar recipes popped up throughout France, and by the eighteenth
(27:27):
century French convents were specializing in macarons, and they were
commercial commercialized as women left those convents and opened to
their own shops. Probably the most famous example two women
in two who went on to become known as the
macaron Sisters. They were seeking asylum during the French Revolution,
(27:48):
and they paid for their keep by selling these treats
made out of egg whites, ground almonds and sugar, and
they were incredibly popular, and they kept the recipe a
secret to this day. And get these no one knows
except to whoever was making them. I wonder if it's
still nuns. Probably not, probably probably not well listeners if
(28:08):
you know right in yes. So this means all of
this means that the Sicilian word macarooney referred to two
very different foods by the seventeenth century, want a dessert
and one a pasta. As late as nineteen hundred, though,
on the other side, macaron and macaroon described pretty much
(28:29):
the same thing um which from Larus gastronomic quote a
small round biscuit cookie cruntry outside and soft inside, made
with ground almonds, sugar and egg wise. This didn't change
until in eighteen hundreds. American trend around coconut imported from
India and coconut was all rage, all all sourts of
(28:51):
desserts incorporated this ingredient. Pies and custards, ambrosia, and yes,
coconut macaroons. The eight seventy one Jewish cookery book by
Esther Levi came with a recipe for macarons that swapped
out the almonds and macaron's for shredded coconut to be
baked in a quote gentle of it again, I love
(29:14):
this um. These recipes were common throughout America by the
eighteen nineties, and were particularly popular at passover. Yeah, because
they're flowerless, so yes, you don't have to worry about
the whole passage thing, right right, right right. By the
nineteen thirties, a handful of Mozza companies were selling commercialized
macaroons of both almond and coconut varieties. But note, yes,
(29:39):
this is not when macaroons were invented, um, just when
they were popularized. And this name thing, this kind of
strange divergence of the name happened. Macaron Future episode the
history I actually got really confused because the history of
macaroons goes pretty much as far back as the history
of macarons, and they're very like intertwined throughout. Um so
(30:02):
keeping all of that straight, Oh sure, yeah, Oh but
I but I love that. I love that that that
anyone who has ever been confused by that you are
so validated history is very also confused about it. Yes,
I do feel validated. Simultaneously as all that was happening,
(30:23):
macarons were also evolving. Macarons at the time were typically
purchased in pairs placed flat against each other like a sandwich.
So much like a sandwich that a French baker and
several take credit for this, yes, including Pierre de Fontaine
and Cloud Gerbay, got the idea of adding a filling
(30:44):
to the two cookies, and this filling was either an
almond paste or gash called la macaron partisian or la
macaron jerbet. These sandwich style macarons spread quickly, pretty quickly. Uh.
Both styles of macrons are still popular in France, like
getting the single cookie um or getting the sandwich, while
(31:07):
in the US macaron typically refers pretty much exclusively to
the sandwich kind. Uh. And then macaroni of course, refers
to the elbow shaped pasta, which comes from that whole
pasta aspect of this word. Right. Yes, yes, a lot
of etymological confusion in this one. De Froonton's cousin worked
(31:30):
at Parisian bakery Lade, and he was a big part
of popularizing macrons Perisyan as well as innovating with colors
and flavors. And this bakery is still around and still
a huge deal. Um. They have things like seasonal flavors
and they advertise in French editions of magazines like Vogue
(31:51):
and l like next to fancy watches and persons. Yeah,
it's a whole big deal. But until recently, like until
like the night teen eighties, flavors were fairly standard, like
like just like vanilla, chocolate, coffee and raspberry um and
not changed. In the nineteen eighties, this parason partissary called
(32:12):
oh how would you say that? Annie, full sean full
sean Um, they started offering more innovative things like like
like olive oil flavored macaron and um and a throwback
to uh to previous times rose flavored macaron. Oh, I
see what they did there? See In two thousand and six,
(32:34):
Sofia Coppola's Phil Marie and Twinette. Yes, I haven't seen this,
but okay, they featured pyramids of Macaron's. Yeah, and the
popularity of Macaron's skyrocketed in places like North America, Japan,
South Korea, and China after that. Uh, some people attributed
to the movie. I'm sure it's not all because of
(32:55):
the movie, but I think the movie helped. I would
agree with the point. I would certainly agree with that. Um.
And I remember like two thousand eleven ishes when I
was like, oh, this is a whole thing happening here
with the macarrol Yeah. I don't think I knew what
one was before that. Huh. I Oh, I can't remember
(33:18):
when I would have first become familiar with them, um,
having having a father who was a chef and and
had done some time in uh in French cooking. Yeah,
like I don't know, but but but at any rate, Um, yeah,
when when Marie Antoinette came out a lottery created a
(33:39):
rose and Annis flavor for the film. And uh, That's
not the only thing they've appeared in by far. Macrons
have also been in things like Gilmore Girls, Uh, The
Great gasby Farrell released two limited editions of machererol cola
and peanut butter. Now, some places reported and I couldn't
(34:01):
find this. I'm sure if I had like more time
to google, the answer is out there. But some people
reported that they were one flavor cold and peanut butter,
while others said two flavors cola. Yeah. So if anyone
knows the answer to this very important question, please, oh
(34:23):
I love this. McDonald's, McDonald's and MC cafes in France
started selling mackearon in two thousand seven. Um Starbucks followed
soon after, and Fauchant responded with a seasonal flavor of
quote catch up with Pickle burn I Love It, slap
(34:50):
um Hey saco Ogitas book I Love Macaron came out
in two thousand nine. That same year, two French expass
opened the macharon and the United States and they were
selling an annual eleven million dollars in sales. Yeah, and
recently they introduced a mobile food cart Macarround food Cart. Yeah. Uh.
(35:14):
These days there is a big push for vegan macaron uh,
and also a lot of focus on packaging making it
more environmentally friendly. And yeah, all the trend may have
died down. Uh, macaron are still going strong. They haven't
experienced the same kind of cataclysmic uh loss of interest
(35:37):
like cupcakes did. Cupcakes. I've never given you up, Cupcakes.
I still love you, but yeah, I know, unlike many
cupcake restaurants cupcake bakeries that just completely folded. Um, I
don't know. Yeah, you still definitely see a macaron out there.
(35:57):
You do. In fact, in our very office ding, which
we have not been into months and months, there as
a macaron place. The cupcakes, I don't it was a
full It was a full on French partissari um. So
they had a number of things. But I would walk
past that case and and there and they are so
pretty and like so colorful and so small, and you're like, oh, man,
(36:20):
like I could spend three dollars on a cookie right now,
um or however much it was. And yeah, um, I
think I think I did buckle and buy a few
one day. Yeah, I definitely bought some. I did like
a tour of our our office all the food in
our office once with a friend and we just got
a bunch of random stuff. And I know Macaron were
(36:41):
there that there is something about him that they're so
pretty and I don't know, and you know it's not
like well in my case, I don't get them hardly ever,
so when I do, it just what a little delight. Yeah.
They're just so airy but also crispy but also chewy,
and then they're melty and they're so flavorful. Uh. They're nice.
(37:02):
They're just nice and I just like them. Me too,
Me too. That's what we have to say about the
macaron that is um And we do have some listener
mail for you. We do, but first we have a
quick break for a word from our sponsor and we're back.
(37:25):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
listener very and delightful. M. Cody wrote, I recently listened
to your episode on the ice cream Man and their jingles,
which was very reminiscent of what I grew up with
(37:46):
as a kid. However, when I moved to oh Maha
as an adult, I started hearing this bell chiming every
evening around the same time in my neighborhood. I thought
maybe it was a factory letting out nearby. Then one
day I saw an ice cream van driving that was
making the noise. My then girlfriend now wife said, oh,
look that's the ding ding Man. After doing more research,
I found out that's what everyone in o Mahaw cost,
(38:07):
these little vans driving around dinging their bells. There is
no such thing as the ice cream Man. I don't
know how widespread this regionalism is, but I found it
kind of adorable. That's amazing. I never heard of that.
I love. Oh, that's so great the ding ding man.
(38:28):
But in this context, yes, And if anyone else has
a regionalism or knows more about this regionalism, please right
and I would love to find out that the ice
cream man goes by various epithets, many names, like like
Santa Claus. You know I go by many names. Rose wrote,
(38:51):
enjoyed your episode on ice cream trucks and it brought
back one of my favorite mom stories. When I was
home on maternity leave with my second child, we had
an ice cream truck that came by every day and
stopped at the house across the street. Four kids lived there.
Keep in mind this means we couldn't see the side
of the truck with the window where the ice cream
was purchased and handed out, important for later. Every parent
(39:13):
knows that limiting the amount of ice cream eaten by
a child can be an ongoing challenge, and with a
daily visit of the ice cream truck could quickly lead
to tears when you can't buy from the fun ice
cream truck. Add to that the fact that when you
have a new baby at home, you are just so
very very tired all the time and perhaps not on
top of your mommy game. So when my two and
a half year old asked, mom, what is that truck
(39:35):
as it stopped across the street, Yes, it did have
pictures of ice cream all over it, but clearly that
wasn't a clue to her. I heard myself say, that
is the music truck. It drives around and plays music
so people can dance and be happy. This led two
weeks of going out front when the ice cream truck
came by for my daughter to dance in the driveway
(39:56):
while the other neighborhood kids purchased an ate ice cream. Yes,
I did feel guilty about my lie some days, but
she was happy until the day she was playing with
a five year old who lived next door and we
heard the music announcing the truck was coming. My daughter says, Oh,
the music truck is coming, Let's go dance. The neighbor
child gives her a strange look and says, it is
(40:17):
the ice cream truck. Don't you want ice cream? The
look on my daughter's face was priceless as she turned
to me and said, Mommy, cover blown and not willing
to admit my little lie. I say, well, yes, I
do think some music trucks sell ice cream. Why don't
(40:38):
we go see about this one? And then I had
to do some actual parenting, explaining that we can't buy
ice cream every day, it is a sometimes treat, etcetera.
She still can't believe I told her that lie. But
it was a glorious couple of weeks of dancing in
the driveway to the music of the music truck with
no discussions of ice cream buying, and a mom has
(40:58):
got to do what a mom has got to do.
Bonus note, without any words lies encouragement on my part um.
At the same age, she also loved to go out
to the driveway and wave, dance and smile at the
garbage men as they did their route. I'm sure it
made their day. And I took her out whenever she
heard the truck and asked, but I have no idea
where she got that idea, and I always felt a
(41:20):
bit awkward as she encouraged me to dance and wave
at the garbage men too. That's beautiful, she sounds awesome.
That's so great all all around, all around, I think
no one can blame you. No, no, I mean reading this,
I had never really considered how uh frustrating that might
(41:45):
be for parents. Not today, not today, you can't have
more ice cream today? Yeah? No, that is all around,
completely solid and a nice little workout, fun times for had. Yeah, delightful, delightful,
(42:09):
like an occasional ice cream cone exactly. Thanks so much
to both of them for writing. If you would like
to write to us, you can our email is hello
at savor pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
savor pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
(42:31):
Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
my heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagin and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
market things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to say a production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. And today we're
talking about macarons. Macarons, which I definitely mispronounced. Again, I
took French for over a decade. I think I mispronounced
it for years much Americanized pronunciations of it. Yeah, I'm
(00:29):
probably over over doing the French when I try to
say it with a French accent, I should probably just
default back to like macaron, like macaron. That's how it is.
Now you need to go over the top French like that.
And now all of our French listeners have clicked off
(00:50):
and are starting the angry. Even try our best, we do.
We do. Also, I like it's I think we've mentioned
on this show before. Maybe maybe we haven't that. Yeah,
like every time we have an episode that's full of
of a lot of French words or names, um, we
(01:10):
wind up at some point like shaking our fist in
the air and going French um. And that is a
true story. And furthermore, Annie, I I need to update you.
I was having UM. I was in a production meeting
with UH with with Holly fry Um, who has some
friends and family who are French, and um, and oh gosh,
(01:32):
what was it that I was I don't I don't
remember the specific word. It was another food term because
of course it was something from from our show. But um,
but there was some word that I said and I
was like, Holly, like, I don't know if I'm saying
this right. Do you know if I'm saying this right?
How do you say this? And she was like, I
don't know, but I will ask and I got this
(01:53):
and I got this email back like on a weekend
a couple of days later, like, well, I asked my
French friends and they say that you are supposed to
pronounce that end. I think it's an end tu that
the t at the end, but you're supposed to say
it so that no one can hear it. Yeah, it's
(02:16):
for all for you. French is a very rewarding language. French.
Oh yeah, and you know what, the same could be
said about macaron because I went through a phase pretty
(02:37):
soon after I started interning it how stuff works, where
I wanted to bake like everything, I didn't want to
do same recipe ever, and I wanted to keep trying. Okay, cool, yeah, yeah,
and I got it in my head because this was
around the time I found out what macaron were, because
I had never heard of them before, so I think
it's like two twelve. And so I was like, I'm
(02:58):
gonna try. I've heard horror stories, but I don't care
man is, and I won't be stopped. And I got
like a scale. I did the whole thing, and uh,
it's one of like three things that like totally I
would say it totally failed because they actually tasted like macarron.
They tasted good, but they like collapsed as though I
(03:21):
had reached out and touched a skeleton and it just
turned to dust. Oh, like like they were like they
were in an Indiana Jones movie and they you know, yes, um,
they were like they looked perfect when I first took
him out, but when I went to pick one up,
and I blame the humidity. I blame the humidity. And
(03:43):
I'm standing by that. Oh heck yeah. To be honest,
like I I love baking and I love new challenges,
and like, I dare not attempt this. I don't have
it in me right now. I need to set aside
at a period of time, and I'm feeling like like
I've had like a lot of winds, you know, and
I like need to like knock myself back down if
(04:05):
you or catapult myself into like total intolerability. Oh if
you succeed, right, yeah, because I they they seem they
seem very complicated. Um. I always have kind of Jankie
Evans in my life, and um, you know, like I
don't know, like I have friends who make them, but
(04:27):
I just assumed that they're wizards. Uh yeah, probably yeah. Um. Also,
I will say that the blog is fhere. Back when
the blog is fear was still really a thing. Um,
the term for failed macarons was was macar Wrong's. Oh yeah,
I like that. Yeah, I mean I guess that's what
(04:47):
it was. I actually, looking back on my experience, I'm
pretty proud of it because I got close. I think
they got really close. That's good enough for me. Oh yeah, done.
And flavor. Hey, it's always it's always most important how
it tastes. They really did taste good. Um. We I
was thinking we had that when we were at that
(05:09):
Bouddhan festival in New Orleans. All the way at the
top of the stairs, there was a booth that had
Macarrol and I got one that was like maple bourbon
bacon and it had a pipe bed and you like
injected it with something. I don't know, Oh, I believe you.
I'm not sure if I had. I think I was.
(05:30):
That was a weird day. Yeah. I don't think I
tried to eat that many desserts because I was like,
I am already going to make myself pretty ill with alcohol,
and I don't think that adding sugar on top of
that is a really good plan. No, it was definitely
at the very back. It was like the last thing
we were doing. Oh okay, yeah, yeah, but it was good.
(05:52):
Oh it sounds delicious. Um. Also drink responsibly, folks. Um. Also, also,
macaron day is March, so we are completely out of
season for that one. Well, you know, sometimes you just
gotta it's the savor savor wight every now and then
we accidentally do something that's timely. But yeah, super rare.
(06:14):
But I guess all of this brings us to our question. Yes,
what are they? Well? Macaron are a type of flowerless
meringue cookie made with a fine ground almonds these days,
typically served sandwiched with with a thin layer of some
kind of filling. Um. They are not a macaroon. Um,
(06:38):
although they are apparently related. I never knew this. This
is very exciting. Cannot wait for the history section anyway.
Macaroon in the United States generally refers to a sort
of denser, flowerless cookie made with a shredded coconut and
there's an extra oh in the in then there. Oh
(06:59):
that's what I like to uh and Okay, So so
to to to understand what this cookie is, UM, let's
let's talk about how you make them hypothetically, uh, and
the and the structures that get formed as you're doing that.
Because because in your in your average wheat flour cookie, UM,
(07:20):
the structure of the cookie, you know, like it's chew
and puff and crisp and whatever ratios you're you're going for. UM,
that structure comes from interactions that you introduce among butter, sugar, eggs,
and flour. But maringues are basically just egg whites and
sugar UM, sometimes buffed up by something like wheat flour
or in this case, almond flour. Yeah, and this is
(07:44):
one of the treatments of eggs that shows you just
how fascinating they really are. So the the primary protein
in egg whites is this ball shaped protein called OL,
and when it's just hanging out in an egg, it's
not really interacting that much with its with its fellow
protein molecules. It's just slipping by them, uh, forming that
(08:05):
you know, goopy watery liquid that egg whites are UM.
To make a meringue, you have to convince those albumin
molecules to form up with each other into a structure,
which is pretty easy to do really. Um. You just
beat the egg whites, and that physical force d natures
the proteins um, meaning that they unfold um, presenting these
(08:28):
positively and negatively charged ends um, which will then bond
up with each other in a structure, trapping molecules of
water and air in among them. So so the egg
whites go from from this goopy clear liquid to a soft,
opaque white foam UM that forms uh these little peaks
that will then kind of melt back down into the
(08:49):
mass or or or sink back down into the mass rather.
And at that point you wanna you wanna bore up
that that structure into something stiffer using granulated sugar, and
you beat that sugar in until stiff, shiny peaks have
formed UM that the sugar molecules work a little bit
like a like a glue, just kind of bonding everything together,
(09:12):
and that is a meringue. Um. If if you now,
a few things can go wrong here. Um and it
may have to do with what happened to to your
macarrong's it's accurate, but um so so if you overbeat
(09:34):
egg whites, um that those proteins that have have formed
these these bonds will keep on forming bonds to the
point that they'll start to force water molecules out and
um and that leads to the whites breaking. Or if
you don't take it quite that far, but you take
it like a little bit too far, cracks will form
in your cookies while they're baking. Um. Fat also will
(09:56):
destabilize meringue. So you've got to make sure that your
bowls and utensils are super clean. Oh yeah, no leftover grease.
I remember that. It's like what, yeah, it'll just make
them all slippy again. You don't want them to be slippy,
you want them to be structured. You know, that was
my first time making meringue. I remember reading the instructions
and being like this doesn't sound real. Tell me, I'm
(10:20):
going to see like mountains in this yeah. Yeah, because
it goes from goo to to like a like a
four times expansion of like yeah this foam muty foam
foam and you're just like what pretty much the incredible
edible egg y'all? Um. But so to um to make
a meringue into macron batter And there is a word
(10:44):
for this in French, and I don't remember what it is.
It's macaron with extra syllables anyway. Um. Yeah. So so
you you take your meringue and you carefully and gently
fold in a mixture of almond flour and powdered sugar, um,
making sure to press or a lot of the structure
of that egg white foam. Um. And if you've never
(11:04):
if you've never seen folding in action, um, it's a
it's it's sort of like oh gosh, like okay. So
so in order to do a folding, UM, you kind
of kind of sprinkle your your your dry ingredients over
the wet ingredients, and then you take your spatula and
um and stick it blade thin side in straight into
(11:27):
the center of of your mixture. And then you scrape
the bottom of the bowl and pull up a layer
of the of the stuff on the bottom and kind
of folded over the top of the rest of the
bowl like um, like you're making a bed or or
doing a comb over. And then you keep doing that,
(11:50):
you keep going down into the center and scraping the
bottom and combing it back over the top of the bowl,
and eventually this will all incorporate into a like a glossy,
flowing and slightly deflated next year. And then you pipe
that onto a pan in little rounds, and you allow
them to dry for like fifteen minutes or so, just
(12:10):
sitting out in the air, because that forms the skin
on the top of the cookies so that when they're
in the oven, steam won't try to rise out of
the tops and crack the tops. You want them to
be nice and smooth. Um. It'll be forced to escape
from the bottom instead, And that's what gives the baked
cookies a rise. Um. But be also what creates the
little like ridge of bubbles around the flat side of
(12:32):
a macaron shell. Um, which is the side that touches
the pan while it's baking. So yeah, yeah, bake them
and and then cool them and then you know, pipe
in a little bit of spread in a little bit
of ganash or butter cream or jam, create a sandwich
and then chill them to allow all of those flavors
to kind of meld in, everything to set up. And
the result is going to be, if you have done
(12:54):
this correctly, Um, a chewy cookie with this crisp outer
shell that also melts in your mouth and and as
this like gentle almond cherry kind of flavor. And then
with a burst of flavor and creamy texture from whatever
filling you use. Ah, so delightful. Um. The cookies are
often colored with food coloring, all kinds of bright or
pretty pastel shades. Um. The flavor possibilities are endless, endless, endless, endless, Uh,
(13:20):
you know, sweet or savory. The florals, teas, fruits, chocolate,
f gras, I you know, whatever you want. Yeah, I
think we talked about a gold one in our I'm
sure we did. Sure, it's it's a food, so ready
to add some edible gold to it? Yeah, they're already
(13:44):
kind of sch fancy looking. So I have to say,
I know this isn't but this whole thing has felt
like a personal attack on me. Um in my failure.
I'm sorry, No, No, it's okay. It's all warranted. But
I'm feeling a little like I gotta go overdeem myself
(14:06):
or something. I gotta get that rocky music playing. Oh
I can't do it. Oh no, no, no, and and
and that's the thing, like I mean, like, if you're
like like, you can do all of the all of
the beating and mixing and stuff perfectly. But then if
you're evan um cycles too hot or too cold or
never gets hot enough or gets too hot, or if
(14:29):
there's too much humidity in your apartment or whatever it
is that it is like it can be completely beyond
your control. That's I'm sticking to it. Stick into humidity.
It's very humid around these parts. It is. It is,
and sugar melts in water, and humidity is air water,
(14:52):
so it is. Well, let's say you're not like me,
and you managed to get your hands successfully made macarl
What about the nutrition? Uh, you know, they're they're pretty
low in calories, I guess, like for a single serving,
it's it's a little bit under a hundred calories, but
(15:14):
most of that is sugar. It's like seventeen grahams of sugar,
which is kind of a lot of sugar. Um yeah, dude.
Uh and and he just made the shocked face, so
like the emoji shocked me. Yeah, totally. Uh yeah. I
mean there's like a little bit of fat and protein
in there from the egg, but it's a I would
(15:35):
classify it solidly as a as a treat. Yeah, it's funny.
Uh And we're gonna talk about this morning a little bit.
But it was funny to me how many people were like,
it's a less guilty or permissible dessert is what they
were calling it. And I was like, sure, because you
could just have one. But I feel that's not usually
(15:56):
the case. Maybe that's just me and my friends. I
get sugared out after like about two about two, and
I'm like, this is more macarn than I intended to eat,
and I'm going to stop now. Yeah, they are very
very sweet, but I have a I have like kind
of a low tolerance for sugar, so I feel like
(16:17):
I use it too and through. But I still think
a lot of the stories I was reading was saying
one like well, sure, okay, I mean I don't know,
like they're they're technically kind of low fat and they're
gluten free, yes yes, yes, es yes, yeah, so we
(16:39):
do have some numbers for you. Oh gosh, we do. Yeah,
this really cracked me up because the macaron is often
compared to the cupcake. And after the tragic fall of
the cupcake and you can see a cupcake episode for
more on that, the macarrol stepped in to fill that
vac hume as the it dessert. Yeah yeah, yeah. It
(17:04):
was even called the new cupcake over seventy times in
various outlets by mid um and that that was a
big year for macrons. Someone over at Whole Foods Bakery team.
The Whole Foods Bakery team reported a growth of forty
in sales of macrons. Yeah um. Google searches in the
US reached their height in twelve. In the decade from twenty,
(17:28):
the macrones and market penetration increased by thirteen times. Yeah uh.
And each year Americans spend somewhere around thirty three billion
dollars on ready to eat desserts. The whole dessert market
is staggeringly bigger than that, but on raye to eat
desserts thirty three billion dollars. That pastries are one of
(17:49):
the most popular of those ready to eat desserts, and
macrons are generally categorized under that and they account for
um pastries account for sales of fourteen point three billion
dollars and sales are going up by that numbers estimated
to reach seventeen point two billion. H The average American
(18:13):
is expected to spend about fifty dollars on pastries. Now,
I was curious about that, because I believe this was compiled.
This market report was compiled in I'm like, well, there's
a pandemic now, so how is that going to affect though?
Is it going way up because we're stressed and we
want pastries or is it going down because it's not
(18:34):
food where you don't have rooms unemployed? All right? Yeah,
the stream market question. I I need the I need
the think piece on what COVID nineteen has done to
the macarol market for shore too. I was looking for it,
but I didn't find it. Group holder owner of French
(18:55):
mac around powerhouses law Dura, Chateau Blanc and Paul reports
a year early revenue of about one billion dollars yep,
and they estimate about sixty of that is due to
sales of macrons. What yeah, m M, it's a macron empire.
I'm telling you, Okay, yeah, they do ship all over
(19:15):
the world, so you know. M yeah, a lot of
a invested eighty million euros. Eighty million euros into automating
macaron capable of producing three hundred thousand an hour compared
to about three thousand per day of a small scale bakery. Uh.
(19:37):
And one of the spokespeople over there said, instead of
freezing their macrons, they like to call it hibernation. So
I like another big name in macrons, Pierre Hermy claims
that any chef who says they don't freeze their macrons
is a liar. No bang chiche. And there's a museum,
(20:02):
at least one museum if anyone's ever been. Oh please
please please, oh my gosh. And a part of the
appeal of the macaron does have to do with the
fact that is a dessert, but yes, it can be
advertised under these things. It's like dairy free or gluten free,
relatively low calorie, while at the same time being seen
(20:25):
as a bit of a luxury. They're also pretty, which
is a big bus during these are times of Instagram
and social media. And they're portable and convenient. And I
even read a whole article where this is one thing
millennials aren't killing. Well, well, we're just choosy. It's like
(20:50):
the list of what we've destroyed is miles long. What
we haven't destroyed is macaron. This is like, this is
like how the only non for d z Ac is
let us, Yes, and even let us with sometimes in
afriage sometimes Yeah, so you know, huh huh indeed, well
(21:13):
you know we we do have the history of how
all of this happened, um, how how it grew to
be the kind of pastry that might be ripe for
millennial killing but has not been. But first we've got
a quick break for a word from our sponsor, and
(21:37):
we're back. Thank you sponsored, Yes, thank you. So the
history on this one gets very very messy and complicated,
just like my attempt at baking them oh self burn uh.
And the history of cookies goes back much further than
than where we're going to start here today. But well,
(21:58):
I don't know, not much further but further. Uh, just
put that out there. Um. And also, yes, the macaroon
and macaron have a surprisingly complex history together and tied. Yeah,
macaroons will have to be a different episode, um, but
we're going to touch a lot on it. Here. Yes,
so summer countings placed the macarons beginnings all the way
(22:20):
back to eight hundred twenty seven CE, when arriving Arab
troops from modern day Tunisia set up an emirate in Sicily.
They brought with them many of their technologies and foods,
including some dough wrapped almond paste cookies. These cookies were
definitely not the first of their kind. Others similar to
them have been consumed at celebrations for the Zoroastrian New
(22:42):
Year centuries prior, going way back UM. Over the decades
and centuries after their arrival in Sicily, these desserts evolved
into a handful of other almond based treats like mars
upon which probably would have been said differently back then,
but essentially what is sweet think of modern day marspan um.
(23:03):
At the same time, Cecily was making advancements in another
popular food item in that region, pasta. Almond based desserts
impastas often merged and influenced each other in Sicily. A
lot of pasta recipes from that time had versions both
savory and sweet. Impastas made from almond could be eaten
(23:24):
during lights, so that was a big plus. The predecessor
to the calzone calzone. It was popularly made with either
cheese or almond. Well. Yeah. Early versions of these cookies
made in Venetian monasteries that may have been called priest
belly buttons are monkst belly buttons. I mean, I guess, yeah,
(23:45):
straight to the point, why not? Why not? The Sicilian
word macarooney, first used to refer to two similarly sweet
doughey pasta like foods, originated in twelve at seventy nine,
and was either derived from Arabic or Italian and eventually
led to the words macaroni, macaroon and yes macaron yes,
(24:13):
before on that in a second. Some of these earliest
recipes from macarooney. A thirteen fifty recipe described a butter
and cheese dumping made by hand in fifteenth century one
called for egg rose and water and white flower based pasta,
also with butter and cheese. They yeah, they were like
these pasta kind of hybrids, um for with the word
(24:35):
that would eventually become a basis from macaron. So by
the fifteen hundreds, almond based cookies from Sicily had made
it to the rest of Italy and Spain, France, and
England manifest of Desserts included the word macaroon. Macaroon appeared
in English soon after, replacing the French suffix all with un,
(24:57):
which was a fairly common thing that happened at the time. Yes,
the cookie possibly came to France in fifteen thirty three
with Katherine de Medici and her pastry chefs, who may
or may not have made and sold them. And meanwhile,
meringue was developed, probably in the sixteen hundreds and possibly
(25:19):
in the Swiss town of my Ringen. Makes sense, makes sense. Sure, Sure,
that's all you need. If I ever in doubt. If
a food has a similar name to a place, that's
where it came from. That's definitely absolutely where it came from.
(25:40):
No need to investigate historically any further. That is the
law food history. UM. The first known recorded recipe for
macarons appeared in a cookbook Martha Washington. Yes that when
her family brought over yeah with them to North America,
the book of Cookery, which was most likely also compiled
(26:00):
in the six hundreds. UM. It called for taking a
bunch of almonds, blanching them and beating them with rose water.
You add a lot of sugar, egg, whites, more rosewater,
some other stuff, bake them up in oven hot enough
for men chit, which is a fine French bread. I
love reading old time recipes because I'm like, oh, what
(26:21):
does this mean? A lot of it seems like, you know,
like how you give directions sometimes where you like you
go to the blue house, you'll see it, you can't
miss it, you take all right, It's like that kind
of vague, but I guess people understood it at the time.
I think that most of the time cookbooks from from
that era weren't. We're just kind of reminders of how
(26:43):
to go about a thing. Yeah, not a literal recipe
that you would just be like, what does this look
like at the end? Right? Well, I very much appreciate
reading them and trying to figure out what in the world.
At this point, modern French zine was really starting to
take off. To Francois Pierre de la Verens sixteen fifty
(27:05):
two edition of The French cook included a recipe closer
to our modern day macarons, replacing Arab ingredients like rosewater
with something more French. I remember, specifically, like more egg
whites instead of the rose water. In some instances, Several
similar recipes popped up throughout France, and by the eighteenth
(27:27):
century French convents were specializing in macarons, and they were
commercial commercialized as women left those convents and opened to
their own shops. Probably the most famous example two women
in two who went on to become known as the
macaron Sisters. They were seeking asylum during the French Revolution,
(27:48):
and they paid for their keep by selling these treats
made out of egg whites, ground almonds and sugar, and
they were incredibly popular, and they kept the recipe a
secret to this day. And get these no one knows
except to whoever was making them. I wonder if it's
still nuns. Probably not, probably probably not well listeners if
(28:08):
you know right in yes. So this means all of
this means that the Sicilian word macarooney referred to two
very different foods by the seventeenth century, want a dessert
and one a pasta. As late as nineteen hundred, though,
on the other side, macaron and macaroon described pretty much
(28:29):
the same thing um which from Larus gastronomic quote a
small round biscuit cookie cruntry outside and soft inside, made
with ground almonds, sugar and egg wise. This didn't change
until in eighteen hundreds. American trend around coconut imported from
India and coconut was all rage, all all sourts of
(28:51):
desserts incorporated this ingredient. Pies and custards, ambrosia, and yes,
coconut macaroons. The eight seventy one Jewish cookery book by
Esther Levi came with a recipe for macarons that swapped
out the almonds and macaron's for shredded coconut to be
baked in a quote gentle of it again, I love
(29:14):
this um. These recipes were common throughout America by the
eighteen nineties, and were particularly popular at passover. Yeah, because
they're flowerless, so yes, you don't have to worry about
the whole passage thing, right right, right right. By the
nineteen thirties, a handful of Mozza companies were selling commercialized
macaroons of both almond and coconut varieties. But note, yes,
(29:39):
this is not when macaroons were invented, um, just when
they were popularized. And this name thing, this kind of
strange divergence of the name happened. Macaron Future episode the
history I actually got really confused because the history of
macaroons goes pretty much as far back as the history
of macarons, and they're very like intertwined throughout. Um so
(30:02):
keeping all of that straight, Oh sure, yeah, Oh but
I but I love that. I love that that that
anyone who has ever been confused by that you are
so validated history is very also confused about it. Yes,
I do feel validated. Simultaneously as all that was happening,
(30:23):
macarons were also evolving. Macarons at the time were typically
purchased in pairs placed flat against each other like a sandwich.
So much like a sandwich that a French baker and
several take credit for this, yes, including Pierre de Fontaine
and Cloud Gerbay, got the idea of adding a filling
(30:44):
to the two cookies, and this filling was either an
almond paste or gash called la macaron partisian or la
macaron jerbet. These sandwich style macarons spread quickly, pretty quickly. Uh.
Both styles of macrons are still popular in France, like
getting the single cookie um or getting the sandwich, while
(31:07):
in the US macaron typically refers pretty much exclusively to
the sandwich kind. Uh. And then macaroni of course, refers
to the elbow shaped pasta, which comes from that whole
pasta aspect of this word. Right. Yes, yes, a lot
of etymological confusion in this one. De Froonton's cousin worked
(31:30):
at Parisian bakery Lade, and he was a big part
of popularizing macrons Perisyan as well as innovating with colors
and flavors. And this bakery is still around and still
a huge deal. Um. They have things like seasonal flavors
and they advertise in French editions of magazines like Vogue
(31:51):
and l like next to fancy watches and persons. Yeah,
it's a whole big deal. But until recently, like until
like the night teen eighties, flavors were fairly standard, like
like just like vanilla, chocolate, coffee and raspberry um and
not changed. In the nineteen eighties, this parason partissary called
(32:12):
oh how would you say that? Annie, full sean full
sean Um, they started offering more innovative things like like
like olive oil flavored macaron and um and a throwback
to uh to previous times rose flavored macaron. Oh, I
see what they did there? See In two thousand and six,
(32:34):
Sofia Coppola's Phil Marie and Twinette. Yes, I haven't seen this,
but okay, they featured pyramids of Macaron's. Yeah, and the
popularity of Macaron's skyrocketed in places like North America, Japan,
South Korea, and China after that. Uh, some people attributed
to the movie. I'm sure it's not all because of
(32:55):
the movie, but I think the movie helped. I would
agree with the point. I would certainly agree with that. Um.
And I remember like two thousand eleven ishes when I
was like, oh, this is a whole thing happening here
with the macarrol Yeah. I don't think I knew what
one was before that. Huh. I Oh, I can't remember
(33:18):
when I would have first become familiar with them, um,
having having a father who was a chef and and
had done some time in uh in French cooking. Yeah,
like I don't know, but but but at any rate, Um, yeah,
when when Marie Antoinette came out a lottery created a
(33:39):
rose and Annis flavor for the film. And uh, That's
not the only thing they've appeared in by far. Macrons
have also been in things like Gilmore Girls, Uh, The
Great gasby Farrell released two limited editions of machererol cola
and peanut butter. Now, some places reported and I couldn't
(34:01):
find this. I'm sure if I had like more time
to google, the answer is out there. But some people
reported that they were one flavor cold and peanut butter,
while others said two flavors cola. Yeah. So if anyone
knows the answer to this very important question, please, oh
(34:23):
I love this. McDonald's, McDonald's and MC cafes in France
started selling mackearon in two thousand seven. Um Starbucks followed
soon after, and Fauchant responded with a seasonal flavor of
quote catch up with Pickle burn I Love It, slap
(34:50):
um Hey saco Ogitas book I Love Macaron came out
in two thousand nine. That same year, two French expass
opened the macharon and the United States and they were
selling an annual eleven million dollars in sales. Yeah, and
recently they introduced a mobile food cart Macarround food Cart. Yeah. Uh.
(35:14):
These days there is a big push for vegan macaron uh,
and also a lot of focus on packaging making it
more environmentally friendly. And yeah, all the trend may have
died down. Uh, macaron are still going strong. They haven't
experienced the same kind of cataclysmic uh loss of interest
(35:37):
like cupcakes did. Cupcakes. I've never given you up, Cupcakes.
I still love you, but yeah, I know, unlike many
cupcake restaurants cupcake bakeries that just completely folded. Um, I
don't know. Yeah, you still definitely see a macaron out there.
(35:57):
You do. In fact, in our very office ding, which
we have not been into months and months, there as
a macaron place. The cupcakes, I don't it was a
full It was a full on French partissari um. So
they had a number of things. But I would walk
past that case and and there and they are so
pretty and like so colorful and so small, and you're like, oh, man,
(36:20):
like I could spend three dollars on a cookie right now,
um or however much it was. And yeah, um, I
think I think I did buckle and buy a few
one day. Yeah, I definitely bought some. I did like
a tour of our our office all the food in
our office once with a friend and we just got
a bunch of random stuff. And I know Macaron were
(36:41):
there that there is something about him that they're so
pretty and I don't know, and you know it's not
like well in my case, I don't get them hardly ever,
so when I do, it just what a little delight. Yeah.
They're just so airy but also crispy but also chewy,
and then they're melty and they're so flavorful. Uh. They're nice.
(37:02):
They're just nice and I just like them. Me too,
Me too. That's what we have to say about the
macaron that is um And we do have some listener
mail for you. We do, but first we have a
quick break for a word from our sponsor and we're back.
(37:25):
Thank you sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
listener very and delightful. M. Cody wrote, I recently listened
to your episode on the ice cream Man and their jingles,
which was very reminiscent of what I grew up with
(37:46):
as a kid. However, when I moved to oh Maha
as an adult, I started hearing this bell chiming every
evening around the same time in my neighborhood. I thought
maybe it was a factory letting out nearby. Then one
day I saw an ice cream van driving that was
making the noise. My then girlfriend now wife said, oh,
look that's the ding ding Man. After doing more research,
I found out that's what everyone in o Mahaw cost,
(38:07):
these little vans driving around dinging their bells. There is
no such thing as the ice cream Man. I don't
know how widespread this regionalism is, but I found it
kind of adorable. That's amazing. I never heard of that.
I love. Oh, that's so great the ding ding man.
(38:28):
But in this context, yes, And if anyone else has
a regionalism or knows more about this regionalism, please right
and I would love to find out that the ice
cream man goes by various epithets, many names, like like
Santa Claus. You know I go by many names. Rose wrote,
(38:51):
enjoyed your episode on ice cream trucks and it brought
back one of my favorite mom stories. When I was
home on maternity leave with my second child, we had
an ice cream truck that came by every day and
stopped at the house across the street. Four kids lived there.
Keep in mind this means we couldn't see the side
of the truck with the window where the ice cream
was purchased and handed out, important for later. Every parent
(39:13):
knows that limiting the amount of ice cream eaten by
a child can be an ongoing challenge, and with a
daily visit of the ice cream truck could quickly lead
to tears when you can't buy from the fun ice
cream truck. Add to that the fact that when you
have a new baby at home, you are just so
very very tired all the time and perhaps not on
top of your mommy game. So when my two and
a half year old asked, mom, what is that truck
(39:35):
as it stopped across the street, Yes, it did have
pictures of ice cream all over it, but clearly that
wasn't a clue to her. I heard myself say, that
is the music truck. It drives around and plays music
so people can dance and be happy. This led two
weeks of going out front when the ice cream truck
came by for my daughter to dance in the driveway
(39:56):
while the other neighborhood kids purchased an ate ice cream. Yes,
I did feel guilty about my lie some days, but
she was happy until the day she was playing with
a five year old who lived next door and we
heard the music announcing the truck was coming. My daughter says, Oh,
the music truck is coming, Let's go dance. The neighbor
child gives her a strange look and says, it is
(40:17):
the ice cream truck. Don't you want ice cream? The
look on my daughter's face was priceless as she turned
to me and said, Mommy, cover blown and not willing
to admit my little lie. I say, well, yes, I
do think some music trucks sell ice cream. Why don't
(40:38):
we go see about this one? And then I had
to do some actual parenting, explaining that we can't buy
ice cream every day, it is a sometimes treat, etcetera.
She still can't believe I told her that lie. But
it was a glorious couple of weeks of dancing in
the driveway to the music of the music truck with
no discussions of ice cream buying, and a mom has
(40:58):
got to do what a mom has got to do.
Bonus note, without any words lies encouragement on my part um.
At the same age, she also loved to go out
to the driveway and wave, dance and smile at the
garbage men as they did their route. I'm sure it
made their day. And I took her out whenever she
heard the truck and asked, but I have no idea
where she got that idea, and I always felt a
(41:20):
bit awkward as she encouraged me to dance and wave
at the garbage men too. That's beautiful, she sounds awesome.
That's so great all all around, all around, I think
no one can blame you. No, no, I mean reading this,
I had never really considered how uh frustrating that might
(41:45):
be for parents. Not today, not today, you can't have
more ice cream today? Yeah? No, that is all around,
completely solid and a nice little workout, fun times for had. Yeah, delightful, delightful,
(42:09):
like an occasional ice cream cone exactly. Thanks so much
to both of them for writing. If you would like
to write to us, you can our email is hello
at savor pod dot com. We're also on social media.
You can find us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at
savor pod, and we do hope to hear from you.
(42:31):
Savor is production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
my heart Radio, you can visit the I Heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our superproducers Dylan Fagin and Andrew Howard.
Thanks to you for listening, and we hope that lots
market things are coming your way.
Savor News
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Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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