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 ↓
Beating and Baking a 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.
Make the meringue
Beat the egg whites until frothy.
Add 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar to each egg white.
Continue beating until stiff enough to cut with a knife.
Bake
Spread the meringue on the pie.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven with the door open until golden brown.
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 foam, they trap air and form the structure that holds the meringue.
- Powdered sugar
- Stabilizes the foam and adds sweetness, helping the whites stay glossy and firm.
The step that matters
Beating until stiff. Underbeaten whites collapse when spread and baked, while overbeaten whites turn dry and grainy. Stop when the peaks hold their shape and the mixture looks glossy.
“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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