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Meringues
Take of finely-powdered sugar one pound, mix it lightly and expeditiously with ten well-whisked whites of eggs--these should be a firm froth. When the sugar has been all put in, fill a table-spoon with the paste, and smooth it with another spoon to the desired egg-like shape, always remembering that after the sugar has been added to the white of egg, the batter should not be worked over much or it will be made soft, and it will be difficult to mould the meringues. Drop them separately, and about two inches apart, on strips of firm white paper, and keep them well moulded with the spoon. Dust them with sifted sugar, let them lie for about two minutes, shake the loose sugar from them, place the strips of paper on baking boards, and bake the meringues in a moderate oven until of a light fawn colour; if they are too much coloured their appearance will be spoiled. When sufficiently coloured and a little cooled, pass a thin knife under each, to slip them from the paper, scoop out a little of the soft part, and put them back in the oven to dry. Before using, fill the hollow with whipped cream, and put two meringues together. To secure variety, finely-chopped almonds or currants may be sprinkled over the top, and the insides may be filled with firm jelly or a rich preserve. Serve piled high. Probable cost, 2s. Sufficient for two dishes.
A classic French meringue in Victorian proportions, baked to a pale tan rather than snow white. Two details carry the whole recipe: what "finely-powdered sugar" means, and how little you stir once it goes in.
- The hinge: fold, do not beatOnce the sugar meets the whites, work the mixture as little as possible. Overworking collapses the foam, the paste slackens, and the spoonfuls spread instead of holding their egg shape.
- "Finely-powdered sugar"This means granulated sugar ground or sifted fine — caster or superfine sugar today. It is not modern confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch and will give a chalky, dense meringue.
- ProportionsOne pound of sugar is about 450 g; ten whites run roughly 300–350 g depending on egg size, so somewhere between about 1.3:1 and 1.5:1 sugar to white by weight. That is leaner than the roughly 2:1 usual in a modern French meringue. Measure by weight rather than counting if your eggs are small.
- "A moderate oven"The book does not define its oven terms. 'Moderate' in Victorian usage is generally read as somewhere around 350F/175C, though meringues are normally given considerably less heat than that; at the higher end they colour quickly and can crack, so watch them from about ten minutes. A paler, drier shell comes from 250F/120C for an hour or more, but that will not produce the fawn colour described here.
- The paper"Strips of firm white paper" on "baking boards" means unglazed paper laid on flat baking sheets. Parchment does the same job and releases without the knife; a silicone mat also works.
- The sugar dustingDusting, resting two minutes and shaking off the loose sugar draws moisture to the surface and gives the crisp, faintly pearled crust of a proper meringue shell. It is not decoration and is worth doing.
- Scooping and dryingHollowing the soft centre and returning the shells to a low oven finishes the drying so they keep. Do this while they are still warm and pliable; cooled shells shatter.
- Assembly and keepingFill only just before serving — cream softens the shells within an hour. Unfilled shells keep a week in an airtight tin, but not in a humid kitchen, where they go leathery overnight.
- Yield and cost"Sufficient for two dishes" means two serving platters piled high, perhaps 20 to 24 filled meringues from this quantity. The 2s. is Victorian money and gives only a rough sense of what the dish cost to put on the table.
Meringue is French in name and in method, and the word is recorded in French cookery from the late seventeenth century — its first French appearance is normally credited to François Massialot's confectionery book of the early 1690s, Nouvelle instruction pour les confitures, les liqueurs et les fruits. The popular story that they were invented at Meiringen in Switzerland, or by a pastry cook named Gasparini, is traditional rather than documented. What made them a fixture of the Victorian table was economy and display: a pound of sugar and the whites left over from custards, ice creams and gilding produced a large, glossy dish for very little outlay, and dishes were judged partly by height and whiteness. Meringue is the textbook demonstration of what sugar does to beaten egg white — the instruction not to overwork the batter is the lesson, and the meringues are the exercise.