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Meringues Au Fromage

Meringues made with egg whites, Parmesan cheese, salt, cayenne pepper, fried in hot fat.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Parmesan cheese and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,322 recipes. Both carry ethyl 2-methylbutyrate, which smells fruity, apple. The science ↓

Meringues Au Fromage

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Gently stir in the Parmesan cheese, salt, and cayenne pepper.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat the hot fat in a pan.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture into the hot fat.

  3. Fry until light brown.

  4. Drain carefully and serve immediately.

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. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  2. Egg + parmesan cheesetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,368 recipes

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

  3. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

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

Egg and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 50,580 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
Whisked into stiff peaks, they trap air and give the meringue its light, airy structure.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and helps the surface brown while frying.

The step that matters

Dropping the mixture into hot fat. Stiff egg white foam is delicate, so stirring in the cheese must stay gentle to avoid collapsing it. The fat must be properly hot so the outside sets quickly, helping the spoonfuls hold their shape instead of spreading or soaking up oil.

“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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