Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Meringue
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Make and bake
In a bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat until glossy.
Spread the meringue onto a baking sheet.
Brown in the oven for a few minutes.
Serve
Serve cold.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Whipped into a foam whose proteins set when baked, giving the meringue its structure.
- Sugar
- Dissolves into the foam, stabilizing it and giving the baked meringue gloss and sweetness.
The step that matters
Gradually add the sugar while beating until glossy. Adding sugar slowly lets it dissolve fully into the whites, which stabilizes the foam. Adding it too fast or too early can leave the foam loose and weepy, and any grease in the bowl can stop the whites from reaching stiff peaks.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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