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 ↓
Meringues
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare a clean baking sheet; rub it with white wax or line it with strips of white paper.
Separate the egg whites from the yolks.
Make and bake the meringue
Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add the castor sugar while continuing to whisk until the mixture is glossy.
Spoon or pipe the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven until dry, about 1 to 1.5 hours.
Finish
Let cool completely before serving, dust with icing sugar.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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
- Eggs
- Whites whipped into a foam that provides the airy structure of the meringue.
- Castor sugar
- Stabilizes the whipped foam and makes the meringue glossy and crisp when baked.
- Cream
- Adds moisture and richness to the dish.
The step that matters
Gradually add the castor sugar while whisking. Adding sugar slowly lets it dissolve into the foam, giving a glossy, stable meringue. Dumping it in at once can leave grainy sugar and a foam that collapses.
“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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