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Dessert

Meringues a Vltalienne —

A sweet dessert made from sugar, water, and egg whites, baked into egg-shaped meringues.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 a Vltalienne —

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 sugar syrup

  1. Break sugar into small lumps and place in a saucepan with water.

  2. Boil over high heat until it reaches the 'Feather' stage, then let cool slightly.

  3. Using a spoon or spatula, work the sugar against the sides of the pan until it whitens.

Make and bake the meringues

  1. Whip egg whites until very firm, then mix with the sugar until smooth and brilliant.

  2. Form meringues into egg shapes and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 10-15 minutes.

  3. Once firm, remove from the oven and stick two meringues together.

  4. Store meringues in a dry 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.

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

Sugar
Sweetens the meringue and, when boiled into syrup, gives the structure its stability.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that traps air, giving the meringue its light, airy structure.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar to the 'Feather' stage. Sugar syrup taken to the correct temperature sets firmly when cooled and combined with whites. Under-boiled syrup stays runny and the meringue weeps; over-boiled syrup turns hard and grainy.

“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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