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Dessert

Swiss Meringue

A dessert of stale sponge cake soaked in sherry, topped with boiled custard and a heap of egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 29% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Swiss Meringue

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak pieces of stale sponge cake in sherry wine.

  2. Place the soaked cake in saucers.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour boiled custard around the cake.

  2. Heap a teaspoonful of egg whites on top.

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. Sherry + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Sherry + winetop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together0 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Wine + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Stale sponge cake
Forms the base, soaking up sherry and custard to give a soft, moist body.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and flavour to the soaked cake.
Boiled custard
Provides a smooth, rich sauce that moistens the cake and sweetens the dish.
Whites of eggs
Whipped egg whites form a light, airy topping that holds its shape.

“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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