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Dessert

Meringues Aux Fraises

A light dessert of meringue shells filled with strawberry jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Meringues Aux Fraises

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the meringue

  1. Whisk the egg whites to a solid froth.

  2. Add the sugar and lemon peel, then beat together.

  3. Form meringues about the size of half an egg on a baking sheet.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes.

  2. Leave to cool in a dry place.

  3. Fill half of the meringues with strawberry jam and place the other halves on top.

  4. Serve dry and crisp.

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.

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 + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

  4. Sugar + strawberry jamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together291 recipes
  5. Lemon + strawberry jamtop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together84 recipes

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Whisked into a foam that gives the meringue its airy, light structure as it sets.
Sugar
Dissolves into the foam to stabilise it and add sweetness, helping the meringue turn crisp.
Strawberry jam
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture to the filling between the baked meringue halves.

The step that matters

Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes. Low, gentle heat dries the meringue out so it becomes crisp rather than browned or sticky. Higher heat can colour or puff it too quickly, and leaving it in a humid place afterward softens it.

Swap the strawberry jam

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, lemon):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Strawberry jamthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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