Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓
Meringue Paste
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Make the meringue
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.
Gradually add the powdered sugar, continuing to beat until well combined.
Bake and serve
Spread the meringue over the tops of your pies.
Place the pies in the oven.
Bake until the meringue is browned.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped into foam, they form the structure that holds the meringue together.
- Powdered sugar
- Stabilizes the whipped foam and sweetens the meringue as it dissolves into it.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks before sugar is added. Under-whipped whites stay runny and the meringue will not hold its shape or brown evenly 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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