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Italian Meringues

A sweet almond-flavored meringue made by boiling sugar, whipping egg whites, 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 cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the syrup and whip

  1. Boil the sugar in the water until it whitens and becomes flaky when dropped from a spoon.

  2. Whip the egg whites until frothy.

  3. Stir in the sugar mixture until just combined; avoid overworking.

Shape and dry

  1. Lay the mixture on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, using a spoon or piping bag.

  2. Place in a cool oven (300°F / 150°C) for several hours to dry and turn a pale fawn color.

  3. Remove with a palette knife, scoop out the soft inner part, and return to the oven until crisp.

  4. Dust with icing sugar before baking for a smooth, glazed look.

Finish and serve

  1. Fill with whipped cream, jelly, or preserves just before serving.

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
Sweetens the meringue and, boiled to a syrup, helps the foam set firm and glossy.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that traps air, giving the meringue its light, crisp structure.

The step that matters

Stir in the sugar mixture until just combined. Overmixing knocks air out of the whipped egg white foam, so the meringue becomes dense and may weep or lose its lightness. Stop as soon as the syrup is evenly combined.

Swap the almond

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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