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 ↓
Strawberry Meringue Pie
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 the crust
Bake the pie crust until golden brown.
Fill the baked crust with fresh strawberries.
Make and bake the meringue
Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form.
Spread the meringue over the strawberries.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until the meringue is delicately browned.
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 that holds the meringue topping together and gives it volume.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the meringue and stabilizes the whipped egg white foam.
- Fresh strawberries
- Provide fruit flavor, sweetness and moisture under the meringue layer.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Sugar must be added gradually so the foam becomes stiff and glossy. Under-beaten whites will weep or collapse in the oven, while over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.
“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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