Macaron: The Aged White and the Foot

The French macaron as understood today — the sandwich cookie with its distinctive foot, smooth dome, and filling — is largely a 20th-century development, standardised through the Parisian pâtisseries of Ladurée and later Pierre Hermé. The Italian meringue method (as opposed to the French meringue method) produces the most consistent results and is the professional standard.

A meringue-based confection made with almond flour, icing sugar, and aged egg whites (Italian or French meringue method), piped into rounds, dried to form a skin before baking, baked to develop the characteristic foot (pied), and filled with ganache, buttercream, or jam. Every stage is interdependent — a failure at any point produces a different defect.

• Italian amaretti (similar almond meringue base, different ratio), Taiwanese pineapple cakes (similar precise ratio-dependent technique), Japanese wagashi nerikiri (similarly precise texture targets)

The macaron shell contributes almond sweetness and meringue character — neutral enough to carry virtually any filling. The filling defines the macaron. Pierre Hermé's innovation was treating the shell as a delivery mechanism for complex, often savoury-inflected ganaches: truffle, olive oil, foie gras. The shell must be sweet; the filling can be anything.