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Dessert

Spanish Meringues

A light dessert made from beaten egg whites and powdered sugar, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓

Spanish Meringues

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  3. Add the powdered sugar and a pinch of salt, then beat well.

  4. Grease some parchment paper and lay it on a baking board.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop the meringue mixture onto the paper.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until done.

Finish

  1. Remove with a knife and place two meringues together.

  2. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before baking.

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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam whose proteins trap air, giving the meringues their structure and lightness.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and stabilizes the foam, helping it hold its shape while baking.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg white proteins unfold and trap air as they are whipped. If the whites are under-beaten, the foam collapses and the meringues spread; if over-beaten, they turn dry and grainy. Stiff peaks are the sign the foam is ready for the sugar.

“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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