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 of Pears, or Other Fruit
Ingredients
Directions
Assemble the fruit
Fill a deep tart dish nearly to the brim with stewed pears, letting them be more than half covered with their juice.
Make and bake the meringue
Whisk the whites of five eggs to a solid froth.
Stir in five tablespoonsful of dry sifted sugar.
Lay the meringue lightly and evenly over the fruit.
Put the meringue immediately into a moderate oven and bake for half an hour.
Other fruits
For other fruits, stew or bake them with sugar as for winter use, or use common plums boiled into marmalade, removing skins and stones and adding blanched kernels if desired.
Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Sugar | 1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated | 49 |
One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.
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. See the original page.
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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites form the foam that gives the topping its light, airy structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the topping and helps stabilise the whipped whites as they bake.
The step that matters
Put the meringue immediately into the oven. Whipped egg foam starts to lose air and weep liquid if it sits, so it should go into the oven as soon as it is spread over the fruit to keep it light and set well.
“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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