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 ↓
Meringue Custard
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the custard
Prepare soft custard and set aside to cool in a small dish.
Make the meringue
Beat the egg whites until stiff.
Gradually add powdered sugar to the egg whites and stir well.
Heap the meringue on a plate that fits the top of the custard dish.
Bake and serve
Place the plate in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) to brown the meringue delicately.
Once browned, loosen the meringue from the plate and gently slide it on top of the custard.
Serve very cold with sponge cake.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam, they create the light structure that holds the meringue together.
- Powdered sugar
- Stabilises the whipped egg whites and adds sweetness and gentle browning in the oven.
- Soft custard
- Forms the creamy base beneath the meringue, providing moisture and a smooth texture.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites until stiff. Egg whites must be whipped to stiff peaks that hold air; under-whipped or greasy whites will collapse and make the meringue dense or runny in the oven.
“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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