Macaron vs Macaroon: The Art of French Baking

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• there is indeed a debate on whether the 2 words mean different things, and most of the media sources are in the “totally different” camp
  - however, when you take a closer look, most of the “totally different” camp arguments are not based on any credible evidence or logic; most of them simply pronounce that the 2 words refer to 2 different things and strongly suggest that if you didn’t know the difference you should be grateful for the education…most of them support their argument simply by citing someone else’s article, which cites someone else's article...
  - the “same but different spelling” camp, however, is grounded in far more credible evidence and logic, and takes pains to explain how the same word with different spelling, at various times and in various places came to mean slightly different things to certain people:
  * “macarons” were a simple cookie developed in the Middle Ages-Renaissance period, made popular in the 16th-century French court of Catherine de Medici
  * the word comes from the Italian word “maccherone”, which refers to something ground into a fine paste; the earliest macarons were made with egg whites, sugar and ground almond paste (as an aside the pasta macaroni shares the same root word)
  * some time in the 19th-century, dried shredded coconut was added or used to replace the almonds in some recipes
  * European Jews migrating to America brought the cookie with them, and for various reasons the coconut version became more prevalent in America
  * as Americans are wont to doing with English words, they spelled it differently, either “macaroon” or “mackroon”
  * it was not until 1930 that the Parisienne bakery Laduree started combining 2 halves of a macaron together with a ganache filling to create what is now the most familiar version of the macaron
  * when the elegant French double-layered version finally made its way to America in the late 20th-century, certain food writers, out of either ignorance or cultural bias, did not recognise its commonality with the humble coconut cookie they called a “macaroon” and instead declared them completely different things
  * by now of course, mangling the spelling of words was no longer in fashion, and not only did the new creation deserve to be spelt in the elegant French way, the “macaron” now had to be pronounced in the proper French way
  * this mistake borne of ignorance and bias simply got repeated and perpetuated, and eventually some (but not all) English dictionaries acknowledged them as 2 different words…the single-O spelling referred to the almond-based, double-layered meringue with a cream or ganache filling, and the double-O spelling referred to the round-mound coconut-based cookie
  * of course the French (and the rest of Europe) were not part of this debate, and continued to enjoy the macaron in its various forms - almond-based, coconut-based, single-layer, double-layer, etc…
  * so if you go to the Alsace region in France today, you will find a Macaron D’Alsace which looks nothing like the Laduree Macaron (which is sometimes referred to as Macaron Parisien) and which some poncy foodie will insist should be called a “macaroon” because it is a round-mound cookie made with shredded coconut…and if you go to Amiens you will find a single-layer almond-based Macaron that looks more like a sponge biscuit (or a Laduree Macaron before its been sliced in half and glued back together with the filling) - if travelling to France is too difficult you can Google the photos
  My eventual conclusion is that the original error was to believe the 2 spellings meant different things, due to a combination of ignorance and cultural bias.
  I've always argued that language is a living thing, so the fact that some dictionaries acknowledge the difference may mean that, in the English language, they are now different words meaning different things. But since a quick Google search (again) will show that many people (including established food magazines) also use the double-O spelling for the Parisienne double-layer version, I'd rather view it as an etymological reunion than an error.
  So the next time someone raises their eyebrows at you for calling a "macaron" a "macaroon", please feel free to bore them with the fruits of my research...

  • Wow! Thanks for all the historical info! I always enjoy learning new tidbits in the foodie realm.