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Dessert

Meringues Au Citron {Lemon Meringues}

Lemon meringues made with egg whites, sugar, lemon rind, baked and served with whipped cream.

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 ↓

Meringues Au Citron {Lemon Meringues}

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C).

  2. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  3. Gradually add the sugar and mix until well combined.

  4. Fold in the lemon rind.

Bake and dry

  1. Shape the meringues on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, keeping them about 1 inch apart.

  2. Dust with sifted sugar.

  3. Bake for about 2 hours.

  4. Carefully break the bottom of each meringue with your thumb and return to the baking sheet.

  5. Allow to dry overnight in a warm place.

Serve

  1. When ready to serve, fill with whipped cream.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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
Whipped into a foam that sets into the crisp, airy structure of the meringue.
Sugar
Dissolves into the foam to stabilize it and gives the meringue its sweetness and crispness.
Lemon rind
Adds bright citrus aroma and a little flavor to the sweet meringue.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and richness that contrasts with the dry, crisp meringue when filled.

The step that matters

Gradually add the sugar. Adding sugar slowly to stiff egg whites lets it dissolve and strengthen the foam. Dumping it in can deflate the whites and leave a weeping, unstable meringue.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream. 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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