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 ↓
Meringues
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a clean, deep bowl, whip the egg whites until very firm.
For each egg white, add 2 teaspoons of sugar and beat lightly until well mixed.
Cut 2-inch wide slips of paper and place meringue shapes on them using a spoon.
Sift sugar over the meringues and remove excess sugar from the paper.
Bake in the preheated oven until they begin to color, then remove.
Gently turn the meringues onto a table and scoop out a little from the center.
Place them upside down on clean paper and return to the oven to bake the soft part.
Store in a dry place until ready to serve.
Fill with Chantilly cream or a tart filling before serving.
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.
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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
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