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Meringues a LA Creme

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,371 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Meringues a LA Creme

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.

  1. Cut stiff foolscap paper into bands, about 2 inches wide.

  2. Using a tablespoon, gather nearly full of the batter and drop it onto the paper, shaping it like an egg.

  3. Continue until the band is full, keeping meringues 2.5 inches apart.

  4. Sprinkle coarse sugar over the meringues and let it sit for 3 minutes.

  5. Shake off the loose sugar and place the bands on a wooden board.

  6. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until light fawn color.

  7. Carefully remove meringues from the paper and scoop out the inside with a spoon.

  8. Smooth the inside and place them on a baking sheet.

  9. Return to the oven to dry without adding color.

  10. Whip double cream and season with pounded sugar and optional flavorings.

  11. Garnish each meringue with a spoonful of cream and join two together.

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. Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the orange

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

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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