Macaroon is American English

OK, just to clarify, for me, a

• Macaroon = a shredded coconut confection that resembles a pile of hay: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Coconut-Macaroons-232018
• Macaron = a meringue based cookie that is most commonly sandwiched around a filling : http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/09/making-french-macarons/

Please correct my perception as necessary.

Nonsense!

It's a British English term, too.

I don't mind people making such definitive statements, but at least check if it's true!

Wasn't there just a thread on this?

Anyway, a few data points

The 1952 (British) _Good Housekeeping's Picture Cake Making_, gives a recipe for plain "macaroons" which is a meringue with ground almonds folded in,  followed by recipes for "coconut macaroons," "chocolate macaroons," "peanut macaroons" etc.,  all also meringues with stuff added.  No fillings.  

The 1961 _Larousse Gastronomique_ (en anglais) gives macaroon as the equivalent of macaron, both defined as "a small round dry pastry made of almond paste, sugar and the white of an egg."  These are what you may know as amaretti, which is to say the egg whites are mixed in unbeaten.

The 1961 NYT Cookbook lists "almond macaroons" but no other kind, similarly combining *unbeaten* egg white with almond paste. 

Clearly at some point in the U.S. the un-meringued coconut variety became so popular as to be identical with "macaroons," resulting in the gummy, over-sweet confection Pete refers to.  

If someone has different vintages of _Joy of Cooking_ lying around, that might shed more light.

And then much more recently the almond ones, or just the plain meringues, were re-introduced into the U.S. sandwiching little fillings, yuppie candy for $2 a pop.

Yes, you're right, Colin there WAS a macaron/macaroon thread - but obviously it was felt the subject needed another airing!

Just to bring up another point, could it be that macaron or macaroon came from the habit in ? the 1700s? used to call anythiung italian or "macaroni"?  Like yankee doodle, he put the feather in his hat and called it "macaroni" - italian, elegant, maybe a little foppish? 

Probably teh coconut version got mutated over time and became what i always knew as macaroons as a kid. 

Just to extend the pointless pedantry, the OED suggests that the source is the  Italian maccherone, going back to the late middle ages and meaning originally dumplings/gnocchi, but also fop/dandy/buffoon.    This is their earliest English cite for the cookie:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colin 

Just to extend the pointless pedantry, the OED suggests that the source is the  Italian maccherone, going back to the late middle ages and meaning originally dumplings/gnocchi, but also fop/dandy/buffoon.   

Thus the Yankee Doodle song with "Stuck a feather in his cap and called it Maccaroni"

Quote:

Originally Posted by phatch 

Thus the Yankee Doodle song with "Stuck a feather in his cap and called it Maccaroni"

as i said! QED

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeteMcCracken 

OK, just to clarify, for me, a

• Macaroon = a shredded coconut confection that resembles a pile of hay: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Coconut-Macaroons-232018
• Macaron = a meringue based cookie that is most commonly sandwiched around a filling : http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2008/09/making-french-macarons/

 

Please correct my perception as necessary.

By today's standards in cooking and terms, I believe that what Pete has posted  is very true and have not known it any other way. By the way , David's blog is fantastic. Chris B. can attest to that.

Petals.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MARGCATA 

@ Peter,

 

Yes, I had checked earlier, and you are correct in the description of the pastries ... which are from the Macaroon family.

English: macaroon - a coconut small pastry with a " hay " type texture

French: macaron - a sandwich cookie like cookie filled with merengue

Italian: Maccarone ( another pastry )

 

*** please note: the French word for macaroon is still macaron according to Oxford, French / English Dictionary 2012  

 

Margcata.

Sorry, Margcata, but maccarone in italian means pasta.  Macarons in italian are called meringhe (meh -REEN-geh) or a certain type, probably the ones that are being referred to are called amaretti for the bitter almond they contain (amaro = bitter).  I googled maccarone and maccherone on google and some internet dictionaries in italian, and they always gave me pasta as the meaning.  More often than not if "maccarone" is used in italy to refer to a person, it means a stupid oaf.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by siduri 

as i said! QED

Ah, I missed your post as I skimmed the thread. My bad.

no bad phatch - we all skim.  not only soup.

just being facetious

In Georgian times, foppish, over-done, overdressed men-about-town/dandies were referred to as Macaronis.

Please note, I know that using Georgian may not be acceptable to those who do not value/accept British timelines as worthy of value!... 

And I thought you meant Georgia on the black sea! 

hahahaaa!

Or Georgian as from the US State of Georgia?!!!