Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 ↓
Flan of Strawberries
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Prepare the flan as directed in the Flan of Apples recipe.
When the flan is about three-quarters baked, remove the rice.
Fill and top
Fill the flan with strawberries, removing the stalks.
Pile the strawberries high in the center and sprinkle with caster sugar.
Cover with stiffly whisked egg whites and lightly dust with more caster sugar.
Bake and serve
Return to the oven and bake at 300°F (150°C) for about 15 minutes.
When the meringue is set, cover with paper to prevent over-browning.
Serve hot or cold.
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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Sugar + eggtop 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
- Strawberries
- Provide the fruit filling, adding moisture, flavor and sweetness to the flan.
- Egg whites
- Whisked into a foam, they set in the oven to form the light meringue topping.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps stabilize the whisked egg whites while they set and brown.
- Short crust pastry
- Forms the crisp, sturdy shell that holds the strawberry filling.
The step that matters
Covering the meringue once it is set. Sugar and egg white brown quickly in a hot oven, so the topping can scorch before the flan is ready. Covering it with paper limits browning while the base finishes.
“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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