How roasted almonds become marzipan (2018) | Hacker News Reader

How roasted almonds become marzipan (2018)

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Niederegger in Lübeck makes the world's best marzipan.

https://www.niederegger.de/en

These are like heaven's tears.

True. Best marzipan around. Of course there are other copy cat marzipans from Lübeck which are not the real thing.

A story of disappointment in three acts:

---

ACT I: Oh cool, they deliver to the USA and their prices are reasonable, let's try it!

ACT II: Sign up for an account in order to check out.

ACT III: Subtotal 16 €; shipping 145 €; total 161 €

Are they shipped with refrigeration?

€145?! That's mad. I can get them from Amazon UK and the prices are decent.

400g worth for £30.99 plus £5 shipping.

You can make it yourself at home, and it will be probably much tastier!

If you're in the UK, save yourself the shipping and check out the food hall in the nicer department stores (Fenwick, John Lewis, Harvey Nichols, etc). They usually have a few bits from the Niederegger range, particularly around Christmas.

You can get them from various online retailers, but marzipan does not travel well. Leave it in a warehouse that's not designed for food storage and it's going to go bad very quickly.

Not to mention it's about 65$/pound from local retailers.

I just ordered from this company. Shipping was $15 for USPS priority. Will see how the quality is though…

https://www.thetasteofgermany.com/

You can buy it at Cost Plus World Market, especially around Christmas time. The chocolate covered marzipan cherries are simply amazing.

Pretty much every time when checking the prices to order from US to Europe. Except when it explicitly says no "international" shipping

Fly to Germany, it might be cheaper :)

I definitely haven't found anything better which is also relatively available in the US. But I think that Königsberg-style marzipan is way better than Lübeck-style (and would do so even if my mother weren't from East Prussia. :)

OK I'll bite. Who makes that stuff in DE?

I'm afraid I only ever got it from relatives (all of which are now deceased).

Really curious what the difference is. I've seen marzipan in old town Tallin, the capital of Estonia. There seems to be some baltic old Hanseatic League town connection here, as Lübeck where Niederegger comes from was also in the Hanse[0].

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanseatic_League

It's hard to take anyone's marzipan seriously, if all the marzipan they sell must be flavored with something. 90 percent of their "marzipan" products are covered in chocolate. If your marzipan is good, other flavors aren't necessary.

Chocolate covered marzipan, yuck!

Absolutely true. My grandma used to make nougat filled 'bread' and also marzipan 'potatoes' from the raw Niederegger base. The 'potatoes' are little marzipan balls dusted with cacao powder. They can also be found on Amazon.com as "Marzipan Kartoffeln".

The difference between good marzipan and the cheap stuff is the almond to sugar ratio. The cheapo marzipan is awfully sweet, no comparison to Niederegger.

We've made marzipan at home using almond flour, powdered sugar, bitter almond extract and rose water. Never managed to get anywhere close to Niederegger. Nobody knows what their secret ingredient is, like Coca Cola I suppose.

Edit: Cost Plus World Market carries Niederegger before christmas, really the most affordable we've found in the US. Can also recommend their "Schwarzbrot", which is covered with dark chocolate ("Kuvertüre").

It's not just almond to sugar ratio. Cheaper marzipan is often diluted or replaced with apricot kernel paste (chemically treated to remove the toxins).

Seems alcohol is a common ingredient in all their offerings.

I would’ve never believed to see Lübeck mentioned here on HN. I find it super cute how our small, traditional Marzipan company has made it into candy shops of the world.

I was in a small town in the middle of Australia once, and they sold little marzipan bricks in the candy section. Warms my northern heart :)

I used to live there many moons ago.

Niederegger's is really good, but having done, uh, extensive sampling of the marzipan space, these guys' marzipan is even better: https://www.mest.de/ Bonus tip: They sell the slightly damaged "Bruchware" from October 24 onwards (apparently when they start or finish production for Christmas): https://www.mest.de/produkte/aktionsprodukte/

amazing, I was looking for alternatives for Niederegger

Great video and very interesting! Unfortunately, as someone with a major sweet tooth that loves all kind of candy/chocolate (and even really likes almonds), I never liked marzipan, and I've tried lots of different brands/quality. Just generally a really unpleasant flavor to me and usually sickly sweet.

As a kid I just couldn't appreciate adult tastes for dessert.

I just couldn't understand why adults would eat something like marzipan, a butter cookie, or fruit cake.

I mean why choose those over chocolate or a reeses cup or a creme filled donut?

(I also didn't understand why old people would play golf when they could ride bikes)

> (I also didn't understand why old people would play golf when they could ride bikes)

That's it, I'll never become an adult.

Your kid self isn't really wrong. However, your kid self is comparing the "mass market" versions of things while your adult self understands that "mass market" kind of sucks.

Mass market "fruit cake" is terrible. A "proper fruit cake" has a ludicrous amount of alcohol in it and is quite a different beast. I suspect I've never had "genuine" marzipan. And a chocolate peanut butter cup or creme filled donut made by hand at your local store is very different from anything "mass market".

However, I will also say that kid you is remembering a different food as well. Reeses cups have gotten terrible--the chocolate and peanut butter have gotten nasty. Similarly for creme filled donuts, I'm pretty sure that they don't even wave a dairy product over those anymore at Dunkin Donuts.

Totally agree with your stance on Reeses. I learned how to make my own cups after seeing a video from Bon Appétit on YouTube. I think it's definitely worth the trouble if you're a big fan of peanut butter cups.

Thanks for reminding me about that channel... Was thinking about it, but has forgotten it.

There is also a significant biological difference. Children basically have an unlimited preference for sweetness, while as we age adults' flavor preferences change and we get turned off by things that are too sweet.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2011/09/26/140753048/ki...

You're not wrong. Marzipan is one of the most disgusting things known to man.

And before people say it's to do with complex/adult tastes, there are lots of those that I really love: black coffee (especially espresso), gin, marmite (a powerful salty/umami flavour) etc. Marzipan is just nasty.

Must be great to have objectively correct tastes

Of course my tastes are objectively correct 8^). The above is an opinion though.

Marzipan is objectively gross though.

I've made this marzipan that I feel rivals store bought. It is uncooked FYI: https://www.daringgourmet.com/how-to-make-marzipan-almond-pa...

Hm, we've always made marzipan at home for Christmas. It's easy - start with almonds, scald in water and remove skin, let dry. Grind to almond "flour". Mix in an egg white (optional), add powdered sugar - mix by hand - like dough.

Optionally add coloring. Make into shapes. Optionally coat in dark chocolate.

Never realized the paste would be heated for normal marzipan - only that it can be baked to make a cake - but that ends up tasting somewhat different (still good).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kransekage

Come to think of it, I've never had almond marizpan. The popular stuff in the US is all from peanuts. For those who have tasted both, what is the difference?

> I've never had almond marizpan

But that's what marzipan is - almonds. Peanuts make mazapan - it's a Mexican food.

> For those who have tasted both, what is the difference?

The former tastes like almonds, the latter like peanuts!

Funnily enough in Spain mazapán is always made with almonds. I guess there were no almonds in Mexico at some point of the whole colonization thing?

It never occurred to me that one could call it marzipan if it were not made of almonds. I think people in Europe would probably object. I would certainly feel inclined to return it to the shop along with a complaint if I discovered that it was not made of almonds.

Another example: Persipan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persipan)

I'm in the US (Northeast) and have no idea what you're talking about, marzipan isn't especially popular in the first place but where you do find it it's almond by definition. But usually you just make it yourself from almonds if you need it for baking since only specialty stores usually carry it. (E.g. it's not at Whole Foods.)

I've never even heard of making it with a different nut. What part of the US do you live in that you're eating a peanut version? What's it called? (Brand name or candy?)

The Southwest.

https://www.amazon.com/Rosa-Marzipan-Peanut-Candy-Gigante/dp...

Looking more closely, it only claims to be 'Marizpan-style.'

actual title is "How roasted almonds become marzipan"

seems like a pointless title change.

HN does this automatically, and it's always pointless and often actively harmful to conveying the meaning of the article

I've tried few recipes and they never tasted like store bought marzipan, the only ingredient I couldn't find that differed was invertase.

Invertase is an enzyme for making invert sugar, which in turn is pretty simple to make at home (sugar, water, heat).

According to [0], the difference comes from slow heating until a certain level of browning is achieved, have you tried that?

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/comments/atvu5u/how_to_m...

Huh... I guess my taste buds aren't so refined. I made marzipan from blanched almonds once and I thought it was perfect. IIRC I only added sugar and a tad of almond flavoring to give it a boost of flavor.

What is the fake marzipan made of?

Almond paste… Marzipan… Nougat…

Please… help me make sense of it all

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdWmulnsVQw

I found this channel last week at a friend's recommendation, here's his video on nougat. Really interesting to see someone show the reasons behind industrial food production without the automatic condemnation that usually comes with it.

How do you actually read this on mobile? I don't see a paywall or some way to unfold the content.

It’s a video. Here’s a direct link that’s working for me right now:

https://pmd.cdn.turner.com/cnn/big/cnnmoney/2018/09/19/capti...

Thanks. Are you using youtub-dl?

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