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Buckeye Kisses
Beat the whites of four small eggs to a high, firm froth, stir into it half a pound pulverized sugar, flavor with essence lemon or rose, continue to beat until very light; then drop half the size of an egg, and a little more than an inch apart, on well-buttered letter-paper; lay the paper on a half-inch board and place in a moderate oven; watch, and as soon as they begin to look. yellowish take them out; or, beat to a stiff froth the whites of two eggs, stirring into them very gradually two tea-cups powdered sugar and two table-spoons corn starch; bake on buttered tins fifteen minutes in a warm oven, or until slightly brown. Chocolate puffs are made by adding two ounces grated chocolate mixed with the corn starch. -Mrs. W. W. W.
Two versions of the same thing: a plain French meringue and a cornstarch-stabilized variant that also gives the chocolate puffs. The instructions are workable, but the oven guidance is the one place where period language misleads.
- "Moderate oven" is too hot hereA moderate oven is usually reckoned at roughly 350F, which will brown these drops before the centers dry; the book itself gives no temperatures. Meringues are dried rather than baked; 250-275F for an hour or more, then left in the turned-off oven, gives white, crisp kisses. The instruction to pull them the moment they look yellowish suggests the heat was higher than meringues want.
- The half-inch boardThat board under the paper is insulation, protecting the bottoms from a fiercely heated iron sheet. A doubled baking sheet or a sheet set on an upper rack does the same job.
- Letter-paperWriting paper, buttered, was the period's parchment. Use baking parchment and skip the butter, which encourages spreading.
- QuantitiesHalf a pound of pulverized sugar is about 1 1/8 cups of superfine sugar; four small egg whites run 100-110 g, so the ratio is the standard two parts sugar to one part white. A tea-cup was commonly reckoned at about 6 fl oz, which would make "two tea-cups powdered sugar" roughly 1 1/2 measuring cups.
- Pulverized versus powderedPulverized sugar of the 1870s was granulated sugar ground fine, closer to today's superfine than to confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch. Superfine dissolves into the whites without grit; if you use confectioners' sugar, expect a softer, slightly chalkier kiss.
- Add the sugar graduallyThe second version says "very gradually" and it matters for both. Sugar dumped into a stiff froth collapses it and weeps syrup during baking. Beat to soft peaks, then add sugar a spoonful at a time until the mixture is glossy and no longer feels gritty between the fingers.
- Cornstarch and chocolateThe two tablespoons of cornstarch absorb stray moisture and make a more forgiving, marshmallowy interior. For the chocolate puffs, the two ounces of grated chocolate should be unsweetened baking chocolate, finely grated and folded in at the very end with the starch.
- FlavoringEssence of lemon was oil of lemon in alcohol; a quarter teaspoon is plenty for this quantity. Rose water is weaker than rose essence, so a teaspoon of rose water is nearer the mark than a few drops.
- Yield and keepingDrops half the size of an egg should give roughly two to three dozen, possibly more. Store them airtight the moment they are cool; a humid kitchen will soften them within hours.
Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping (1877) grew out of Ohio church and community fundraising cookery, and its recipes carry contributors' initials rather than full names, as this one does. "Kisses" was the standard nineteenth-century English name for small baked meringue drops, often said to derive from the French baiser for the same confection, though that derivation is traditional rather than documented; they turn up under that name in American and British books from the early 1800s onward. Their appeal to a frugal household kitchen is obvious: a confection made from egg whites left over after custards and puddings, plus sugar, and dried in the falling heat of a range already fired for the day's baking. The cornstarch variant reflects the spread of commercial corn starch after mid-century, when brands like Kingsford's made a cheap, reliable stabilizer available to home cooks who could not count on a steady oven.