Vol. XXV · Cakes, Pastry and Sweets Plate 11 of 12meringue, French meringue, Swiss meringue, Italian meringue, egg whites, sugar syrup, soft ball, macarons, pavlova, buttercream, stability, 蛋白霜, 马卡龙MT

Meringues.

Double the sugar in a meringue and it whips more slowly, holds less air — and stands for hours instead of minutes.

Meringue is the egg-white foam of X.6 with a great deal of sugar dissolved in it: from about equal weights of sugar and white for a soft meringue to twice the white's weight for a hard, dry one. Sugar slows the whipping and reduces the volume, because the thicker syrup resists being stretched into bubbles, but it makes the foam far more stable: the syrup drains slowly from the bubble walls and sets glossy and crisp when baked or dried. Acid (cream of tartar, lemon) helps the proteins hold together; any fat, even a trace of yolk, prevents foaming.

Three methods. French: whites whipped to soft peaks, sugar added gradually, then whipped to stiff, glossy peaks — light, for pavlova, macaron shells and folding into cakes (XXV.3), but raw. Swiss: whites and sugar whisked over a water bath to about 60–70 °C until the sugar dissolves, then whipped cool — dense, smooth, stable, for buttercream and toppings. Italian: sugar syrup boiled to about 118–121 °C (soft ball, VII.6) poured in a thin stream into whipping whites — the most stable, partly cooked, for mousses, Italian buttercream and baked Alaska. The workshop sweetens a meringue.

Below: the air and stiffness of egg whites whipped for the minutes you choose with the sugar you choose (as a ratio to the white's weight; course foam model, X.6), how slowly the foam drains, and, for an Italian meringue, the syrup's sugar concentration at the temperature you choose (course syrup model, VII.6).

What you will learn

Make French, Swiss and Italian meringue.
Set the sugar ratio for the use.
Use syrup temperature for Italian meringue.
Bake and dry meringues.

Workshop

Course foam model (X.6) with sugar as a percentage of the white's weight and a little acid; "stability" is the model's drainage time. Syrup concentration from the course boiling-point model (VII.6). Swiss and Italian methods heat the whites to roughly 60–80 °C, which is not a reliable pasteurisation (XVII.6).

More sugar, less air, more stability

In the course foam model, whites whipped eight minutes with their own weight of sugar hold about 324 % air and drain over 170 minutes; with twice their weight, only 64 % air but 290 minutes — denser, glossier, longer-lasting. Syrup for Italian meringue at 118 °C is about 87 % sugar: hot enough to cook the whites partly and set a very stable foam as it cools.

Methods. French: 4 whites (120 g), pinch of cream of tartar, whip to soft peaks, add 120–240 g caster sugar a spoonful at a time, whip to stiff glossy peaks. Swiss: whisk the same whites and sugar over simmering water to 65–70 °C until no grains remain, then whip until cool and stiff. Italian: boil 200 g sugar and 60 g water to 118 °C (VII.6) while whipping the whites to soft peaks, pour the syrup in a thin stream down the side of the bowl, keep whipping until cool. Bake meringues low and long — 100–120 °C for 1–2 hours, then dry in the cooling oven — so they dry crisp without colouring; humid weather makes them sticky. For the vulnerable, use pasteurised whites (XVII.6).

At the stove

Whip two small batches of whites, one with an equal weight of sugar and one with double. Spoon them onto paper and watch which weeps first.

Meringue appears in French cookbooks from the late seventeenth century; the macaron as two meringue-almond shells joined with filling is a twentieth-century Parisian refinement, and Chinese bakeries' 蛋白霜 decorations and Japanese cotton cheesecakes both rely on the same foam.

Terms

French meringue: Raw sugar beaten into whipped whites.
Swiss meringue: Whites and sugar warmed over water, then whipped.
Italian meringue: Hot syrup poured into whipping whites.
Weeping: Syrup draining from a meringue.

Meringue is egg-white foam stabilised by sugar: more sugar means less air but far more stability. French is raw and light, Swiss warmed and dense, Italian set by 118 °C syrup. Bake low and slow; keep fat out.

Sources

A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.
H. McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, 2nd ed., Scribner, 2004.