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Dessert

Meringues

Meringue shells are light, airy confections made from egg whites and sugar, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Meringues

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 ↓

Meringues

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the meringue

  1. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl until stiff.

  2. Gently mix in the sugar without overworking the batter.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the meringues using a spoon, cornet, or piping bag on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, keeping them about 1 inch apart.

  2. Dust the meringues with sifted sugar.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 2 hours.

  4. Once baked, carefully break the bottom of each meringue with your thumb and return them to the baking sheet.

  5. Allow the meringues to dry overnight in a warm place.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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

Egg whites
Whisked into a stiff foam that gives the meringue its structure and lift.
Sugar
Stabilises the whisked foam and sweetens the shells, giving them a crisp texture when dried.

The step that matters

Gently mix in the sugar without overworking the batter.. Overmixing after the sugar is added knocks air out of the whisked egg white foam, so the meringues spread and lose volume and crispness. Folding gently keeps the foam stable.

“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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