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Petits Choux Meringues

Petits choux filled with Italienne cream and topped with meringue.

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

Petits Choux Meringues

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the choux

  1. Make gateaux de Boulogne without almonds.

  2. Bake the gateaux de Boulogne.

  3. Cut off the tops of the gateaux de Boulogne.

  4. Fill the petits choux with Italienne cream.

Make the meringue

  1. Beat the egg whites to a strong froth.

  2. Gradually add powdered sugar until smooth.

Bake and serve

  1. Drop the meringue onto the petits choux.

  2. Dust the meringue with sugar.

  3. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until light in color.

  4. Serve hot.

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 + 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.
Powdered sugar
Stabilises the whipped whites and gives the meringue a smooth, sweet texture.
Sugar for dusting
Sweetens the surface and helps the meringue brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites to a strong froth. Egg whites must be whipped enough to hold air, since that foam sets the meringue's structure; under-whipped whites collapse and the topping spreads flat in the oven.

“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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