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Dessert

Pecan Kisses

Pecan kisses are baked egg white and sugar meringue with pecans.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Pecans and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,280 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Pecan Kisses

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the meringue

  1. Place egg whites in a bowl and beat well.

  2. Gradually sift in the sugar while continuing to beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

  3. Gently fold in the halved pecans.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto smooth, dry parchment paper.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.

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. Pecans + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,280 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  3. Pecans + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,962 recipes

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

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 traps air and sets into the light, crisp structure of the cookies.
Granulated sugar
Dissolves into the foam to stabilize it and gives the cookies sweetness and a crisp texture.
Pecans
Add crunch, nutty flavor and richness to the cookies.

The step that matters

Adding the sugar gradually while beating. Sugar added slowly dissolves into the egg white foam and stabilizes it. Adding it too fast or stopping too early can leave a weak foam that collapses or bakes flat, so beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy.

Swap the pecans

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

  1. Pecansthe original
  2. Almondfits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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