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Dessert

Florentine Meringues

A puff pastry base topped with jelly, meringue, almonds or coconut, baked into squares.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Florentine Meringues

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Roll out the puff pastry very thin and cover the bottom of a baking pan.

  3. Spread jelly or preserves over the pastry.

Make the topping

  1. Mix egg whites with caster sugar and fold in chopped almonds or coconut.

  2. Spread the meringue mixture over the jelly.

  3. Sprinkle with additional caster sugar.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake gently until set, then cut into squares.

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 + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

  3. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Puff pastry
Forms a thin, crisp base that holds the jelly and topping.
Egg whites
Whipped with sugar, they set during baking to form the light meringue layer.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps stabilise the egg white foam.
Almonds or desiccated coconut
Adds texture and nutty or sweet flavour to the meringue layer.
Jelly or preserves
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture between the pastry and meringue.

The step that matters

Bake gently until set. Meringue is mostly egg white and sugar, so high heat can brown or weep it before the centre sets. Gentle baking sets it evenly and keeps it tender rather than dry or sticky.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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