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Dessert

Meringue a LA Parisienne

A layered meringue dessert with currant jelly, whipped cream, and strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Meringue a LA Parisienne

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Prepare a meringue mixture with 10 egg whites.

Shape and bake

  1. Pipe the mixture into 10 large rings, each about 8 inches in diameter and ½ inch thick, on parchment paper.

  2. Sift sugar over the meringue and let it sit for 10 minutes.

  3. Shake off excess sugar and place the rings on boards.

  4. Bake in the slow oven until light brown and set.

  5. Transfer to a hot closet to dry.

Detach and assemble

  1. Lightly wet the back of the paper with a paste brush and carefully detach the rings.

  2. Return the rings to the hot closet to dry.

  3. Before serving, pipe bright red currant jelly between the stripes of meringue.

  4. Stack the rings, filling them with whipped cream, and top with strawberries.

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.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Sugar + red curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Egg + red curranttop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together345 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 form the structure that sets into crisp meringue rings.
Sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps it dry and brown into a crisp shell.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and richness that contrasts with the crisp, dry meringue.

The step that matters

Baking and drying the rings. Meringue must be baked low and slow until set and dry. Too much heat browns it too fast or leaves it sticky inside, and the rings may collapse or crack when detached.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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