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Dessert

Italian Meringues

A light dessert made from egg whites, sugar, and optional almonds, baked slowly 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 1 pint of water until it whitens and falls in flakes from the skimmer.

Whip and combine

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

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

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

Bake and serve

  1. Lay the meringue on paper or tins and bake in a very slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 20 to 30 minutes or longer until lightly browned and crisp.

  2. For almond meringues, mix in pounded almonds after molding some of the meringues, and 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. Egg + sugartop 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

Egg whites
Whisked into a foam that traps air, giving the meringue its light, airy structure.
Sugar
Boiled into a syrup that stabilizes the whipped whites and gives sweetness and crispness when baked.
Water
Dissolves the sugar so it can be boiled into a syrup before being combined with the whites.
Pounded almonds
Optional addition that adds flavor and richness to the almond variation.

The step that matters

Adding the syrup to the whites. The hot sugar syrup must be added gradually and quickly while the whites are whipped, so it cooks the foam and sets a stable, glossy structure. Adding it too fast or letting the whites collapse can leave the meringue weak or runny.

Swap the almond

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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