Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 ↓
Meringues or Kisses
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the meringue
Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Quickly stir in the sugar with a wooden spoon.
Prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.
Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto the paper, shaping them like eggs and spacing them 2 inches apart.
Sprinkle sifted sugar over the meringues.
For variation, sprinkle with finely chopped almonds or currants before adding sugar.
Bake and dry
Bake in a moderate oven (350°F/175°C) for 30 minutes, or until they begin to color.
Remove from the oven and gently turn the meringues onto a table using the paper.
Scoop out the soft part of each meringue with a small spoon.
Turn the meringues upside down on clean paper and return to the oven to harden and brown the other side.
Serve
When ready to serve, fill with whipped cream flavored with liquor or vanilla and sweetened with sugar.
Join two meringues together and stack them high on a dish.
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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Sugar + eggtop 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 trapped air gives the meringue its light, crisp structure.
- Fine white sugar
- Stabilizes the foam and dries into a crisp, sweet shell when baked.
The step that matters
Quickly stir in the sugar. Sugar added slowly or stirred too long can deflate the whipped egg white foam. Folding it in promptly keeps the air bubbles intact so the meringue stays stiff and bakes up light.
“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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