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Dessert

Almond Meringue Mixture

A sweet, almond-flavored meringue mixture used as a topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Almond Meringue Mixture

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.

Make the meringue

  1. In a mixing bowl, whip the egg whites with salt until stiff peaks form.

  2. Gradually add the caster sugar and continue to whip until well combined.

  3. Fold in the shredded almonds gently.

Shape and bake

  1. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag fitted with a large plain tip.

  2. Pipe the mixture onto cold waxed baking sheets in desired shapes.

  3. Dust lightly with icing sugar using a dredger.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Allow to cool, then dress with whipped cream 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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that gives the meringue its airy structure and lift.
Caster sugar
Stabilizes the whipped egg white foam and adds sweetness and crisp browning.
Blanched and finely shredded almonds
Add nutty flavor and a delicate texture to the meringue.

The step that matters

Folding in the almonds. Folding gently keeps the air bubbles in the whipped egg whites intact. Overmixing deflates the foam, so the meringue spreads, bakes flat and loses its light texture.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, cream):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pistachiofits about as well
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Pecansfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, cream. 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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