Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 ↓
Flan of Strawberries
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare the short‑crust pastry and line a flan dish.
Bake the flan until about three‑quarters done, then remove from the oven.
Fill and top
Remove the stalks from the strawberries and fill the flan with them, piling the fruit high in the center.
Dredge the strawberries generously with caster sugar.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff and cover the strawberries with the meringue.
Sprinkle a little more caster sugar on top of the meringue.
Bake and serve
Return the flan to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes until the meringue is set.
Cover with paper to prevent over‑browning before the strawberries are fully cooked.
Serve the flan hot or cold.
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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Sugar + eggtop 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
- Strawberries
- Forms the main filling and provides fruit flavor and moisture.
- Egg whites
- Whisked to stiff peaks, they form the meringue that sets over the fruit.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and meringue and helps the meringue brown and hold its shape.
- Short crust pastry
- Forms the base shell that holds the filling.
The step that matters
Covering with paper before the strawberries are fully cooked. Meringue sets and browns faster than the fruit softens, so covering it with paper prevents over-browning while the filling finishes cooking.
“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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