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Peach Meringue Pie

A pie of sliced peaches topped with a sweet meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Peach and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,308 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Peach Meringue Pie

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.

Prepare

  1. Peel and slice the peaches.

  2. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  3. Make a short crust and line a pie plate with it.

Bake the filling

  1. Place the peaches in the crust and sprinkle white sugar over them to taste.

  2. Bake until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender.

  3. While the pie is baking, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  4. Gradually add the powdered sugar while continuing to beat until glossy.

Top and brown

  1. Once the crust is done, quickly cover the pie with the meringue.

  2. Return to the oven and brown the meringue slightly before removing.

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. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Peach + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,048 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 that sets into a light, glossy meringue topping.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whipped whites, stabilising the meringue and giving it sweetness and gloss.
Peaches
Provide the fruit filling, releasing moisture and flavour as they bake until tender.
White sugar
Sweetens the peaches and draws out some of their juice during baking.

The step that matters

Covering the pie with meringue once the crust is done. Egg white foam deflates if it sits too long before baking, so it should be spread quickly over the hot pie. Browning the meringue is then brief, because prolonged heat can make it weep or toughen.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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