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Dessert

Italian Meringues

A sweet dessert made by boiling sugar with water, mixing with whipped egg whites, and baking until crisp.

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

Italian Meringues

Oven, in the book's wordsA very slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the syrup

  1. Boil the sugar with water until it whitens and falls in flakes from the skimmer.

Make the meringue

  1. Whisk the egg whites to a solid froth and have them ready.

  2. After the sugar has stood for 2-3 minutes, quickly mix it with the egg whites until smooth.

  3. Stir until the mixture is firm enough to hold its shape when spooned.

Bake

  1. Spoon the mixture onto paper and place in a very slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

  2. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or longer until lightly browned and crisp.

  3. For variation, mix in pounded almonds before spooning, but bake longer.

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. Sugar + eggtop 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

Sugar
Boiled with water to form a syrup that sets the meringue structure and adds sweetness.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the meringue its airy structure.
Pounded almonds
Optional addition that adds flavour and texture to the meringue.

The step that matters

Stirring the syrup into the egg whites. The hot sugar syrup must be mixed in quickly and until smooth so it cooks and stabilises the whipped egg white foam. Stirring too long or too little can deflate the foam or leave the mixture uneven, and the meringue then loses its airy, crisp texture.

Swap the almond

The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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