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Meringues Seches

Dry meringues made from beaten egg whites and powdered sugar, baked until crisp.

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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the meringue

  1. Ensure eggs are fresh and do not break them until ready to use.

  2. Beat the egg whites in a clean, deep bowl until very firm.

  3. Gradually add 6 tablespoons of powdered sugar and mix until well combined.

  4. Cut strips of paper 2 inches wide.

  5. Shape the meringues like halved eggs on the paper.

  6. Sift additional powdered sugar over the meringues and gently blow off excess sugar.

  7. Place the paper strips on a baking board.

Bake and hollow

  1. Bake in a moderately hot oven (350°F / 175°C).

  2. Remove from the oven as soon as they begin to color.

  3. Carefully turn the paper strips over on a table.

  4. Remove the soft centers with a small spoon.

  5. Place clean paper on the board.

  6. Turn the meringues upside down.

  7. Return them to the oven to bake the soft part.

Store and serve

  1. Once baked, store the meringues in a dry place until ready to use.

  2. Before serving, fill them with whipped cream or a tart filling.

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. Egg + sugartop 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

Egg whites
Whipped into a firm foam that gives the meringues their structure and airy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the meringue and stabilizes the foam while helping it dry and crisp.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until very firm. Egg whites must be whipped to a stable foam before sugar is added; under-beaten whites collapse and produce flat, dense meringues, while the sugar helps hold the air bubbles in place.

“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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