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Dessert

Almond Meringues

Almond meringues are light, sweet treats made from egg whites, sugar, and almonds, topped with almond cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Almond Meringues

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the meringue

  1. Whisk the egg whites to firm froth.

  2. Gently mix in the sifted sugar.

Shape and bake

  1. Prepare writing paper on a board to drop meringues.

  2. Drop meringue mixture in half-egg shapes on the paper.

  3. Sprinkle finely-shredded almonds and coarsely-sifted sugar on top.

  4. Place in a cool oven and bake until firm.

  5. Scoop out a little inside.

  6. Place upside down on clean paper.

  7. Return to the oven until crisp.

Assemble and serve

  1. When ready to serve, fill with almond cream.

  2. Join with egg white.

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. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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
Whisked to firm froth, they trap air and give the meringue its light, airy structure.
Sifted sugar
Stirred into the whites, it sweetens and helps stabilise the foam.
Almond cream
Fills the baked shells, adding richness and flavour contrast to the crisp meringue.

The step that matters

Baking in a cool oven. Meringue bakes best at low heat so it dries and firms without browning or cracking. A hot oven can colour the surface and make it collapse or turn sticky inside.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Pecansfits less well

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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