Menu
Why will Englishmen always describe the minute of a dinner as the menu? Why do they not speak of a receipt as a reçu? Surely it is impossible to get a better word than the English minute or minutes. MERINGUES are made with a batter composed of white of egg and sugar, in the proportion of ten whites to a pound of sugar. Whip the whites into a firm froth, mix in the sugar, and then arrange spoonfuls of the batter in egg-shape upon sheets of paper. Next sprinkle some coarsely sifted sugar over them, leave them alone for a couple of minutes, and then shake off the loose sugar. Place the sheets of paper on baking-boards, and put them into a slack oven till the meringues take a light-buff tinge. Take them out again, and with a dessert-spoon scoop out the insides, taking care not to alter the shape of the meringues. After this put them again into the oven to dry, but care must be taken not to deepen the colour. Fill the meringues with whipt cream or iced cream; join them together two-and-two, and pile them upon a napkin.
It is apparently not known why they are called meringues. There are several curious explanations of the name, Meringues not one of which is satisfactory. I therefore venture to make a conjecture. It wants but one little fact, which may hereafter be found, to raise the conjecture into a demonstration.
The chief point to be observed is that a meringue is white of egg worked into shape. It is therefore in the first instance to be presumed that the name means white of egg, or simply white. The fact which I have failed to find, and which if found would be decisive, is that meringue means white; but there are other facts which distinctly point that way. First of all, look at some parallels in the English language. We have white, white of egg, whiting the fish, and whiting the chalk. Now, in French the name for a whiting is merlan, in old French, merlenc and mellenc. In French, also, the name for a white clay is marne, formerly merle and marle. Is it not a fair inference that, as in English whiting the fish and whiting the chalk are connected with the root white, so in French merlan the fish and marne the chalk are equally. connected with a root meaning white, which would also yield meringue for the white of egg? There is something to confirm this view in the Latin language. The French marne (in the old form and in the English language marle) comes from the Low Latin margila, a diminutive of marga. But it has already been shown in these pages (see Gallimawfrey) how easy it is in various languages to drop the initial m. The Mac of the Gael becomes the Ap of the Welsh. The monos of the Greeks becomes the unus of the Latins. Seize this fact thoroughly, and it will be understood that the Low Latin margila is a doublet of the classical Latin argilla; and we know that argilla must be traced back to argos, white. If, therefore, argilla had a dialectical variety-margila, it may reasonably be inferred that argos had also a dialectical variety-margos, which would have the meaning of white, and contain the germ of meringue, as something white. There can be no more Milk difficulty in tracing meringue back to margos, a supposed form of argos, than in tracing marne back to margila.