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 ↓
Cream Meringues
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the meringue
Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Gently mix in the powdered sugar without deflating the egg whites.
Heap the meringue onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper in large mounds or small ones.
Dry and hollow
Place the baking sheet in the oven to dry the meringues rather than bake them.
If the oven is too hot, leave the door open and rotate the baking sheet for even heat.
When the meringues are light brown, cool them slightly.
Carefully remove them from the paper and hollow out the centers without breaking them.
Dust the insides with powdered sugar and place them bottom up on clean paper.
Put them back in a cool oven to dry out.
Fill and serve
Prepare whipped cream or Italian cream to fill the meringues.
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 + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Whipped into foam that gives the meringues their light, airy structure.
- Powdered sugar
- Dissolves into the foam to sweeten and stabilise it, and gives a crisp finish.
The step that matters
Gently mixing in the powdered sugar. Folding rather than stirring keeps the air bubbles in the whipped egg whites. If they deflate, the meringues will be dense and may spread or crack during drying.
“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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