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Meringues

Meringue sandwiches made from stiffly whipped egg whites, powdered sugar, and filled with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Meringues

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

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the meringue

  1. In a bowl, whip the egg whites with a pinch of salt until light and stiff.

  2. Gently mix in the powdered sugar with a wooden spoon without beating.

  3. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto parchment paper, shaping them like eggs.

  4. Sift icing sugar over the meringues.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 2-3 hours, allowing it to cool slightly towards the end.

Fill and serve

  1. Once baked, hollow out the centers with a sharp knife.

  2. Fill each meringue with a teaspoon of whipped cream and sandwich two together, cream side to cream side.

  3. Serve on a glass dish with dessert paper underneath.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked 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 a foam that gives the meringue its airy structure and crisp shell.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves into the foam, adding sweetness and helping the meringue hold its shape.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling that contrasts with the crisp meringue.

The step that matters

Gently mix in the powdered sugar without beating. Whipped egg whites trap air in a fragile foam. Vigorous mixing deflates it, so the meringues bake up flat and dense instead of light.

“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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