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 Tart
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 meringue
Pound the sugar until extremely fine, equal to the weight of the eggs.
Beat the egg whites until very firm.
Gradually add the sugar while continuing to beat the egg whites.
Bake
Spread the mixture on parchment paper in oval-shaped flat portions of equal size.
Bake in a moderately heated oven at 350°F (175°C) until the outside is light yellow and the inside is crisp.
Assemble
Arrange the baked portions on a dish with preserves between them.
Cover the top with icing.
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
- Eggs
- Whipped whites form a foam that traps air, giving the tart its light, crisp structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart and stabilises the whipped whites, helping them hold their shape while baking.
- Preserves
- Add sweetness and fruit flavour between the baked layers.
The step that matters
Beat the whites until very firm, then add the sugar gradually. Beaten egg whites trap air in a foam that holds the tart's shape in the oven. Adding sugar slowly keeps the foam stable and glossy. Adding it too fast or under-beating the whites can cause the foam to collapse.
“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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