Name: Meringue Cases with Ice
Ingredients: 12 egg whites; 1 pound sugar; 4 liqueur glasses maraschino; ½ pint whipped cream; crushed ratafias; butter (for greasing)

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Meringue Cases with Ice

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add the sugar, mixing well.
Spoon the mixture onto a buttered paper in egg-shaped portions.
Dredge pounded sugar over the meringues and let rest for a minute.
Bake until pale yellow, then remove the insides carefully with a spoon.
Return the hollowed meringues to the oven to dry and harden.
In a separate bowl, mix the custard with maraschino and whip to a froth.
When half-frozen, fold in the whipped cream and meringue.
Fill the meringue cases with the ice and sprinkle with crushed ratafias before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).