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Hazelnut Meringue

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and hazelnut work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 279 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. Toast the hazelnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 3 minutes, until fragrant. Let them cool, then roughly chop them.

  3. In a clean, dry bowl, whisk the egg whites with the salt and cream of tartar until frothy and opaque.

  4. Whisk in the sugar a spoonful at a time, continuing until the mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks, about 5 minutes.

  5. Whisk in the vanilla extract until combined.

  6. Gently fold the chopped hazelnuts into the meringue, keeping the air in the mixture.

  7. Spoon the meringue onto the lined baking sheet in four mounds, shaping them with the back of the spoon.

  8. Bake for 50 minutes until the outsides are crisp and dry to the touch. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues inside for 10 minutes before removing to cool.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Vanilla + hazelnuttop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream + sugartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together12,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + hazelnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together332 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,031 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs