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Salad Meringues
2 tablespoons melted shortening 4 tablespoons flour 1/2 teaspoon salt Shake of cayenne 2/3 cup grated cheese 3 egg whites, beaten stiff Mix shortening, flour and seasonings, then mix in cheese. Fold this into the stiffly beaten egg whites. Drop from tip of spoon on greased baking sheet and brown in a moderate oven. Serve hot.
A savoury cheese puff built on the meringue principle: the beaten whites are the only leavening, so everything depends on how gently the cheese paste is worked in. Expect a light, hollow bite that collapses within minutes of leaving the oven.
- The hinge: lightening the baseThe shortening, flour, salt, cayenne and cheese make a stiff, dense paste. Stir a third of the whites in first to loosen it, then fold in the rest in two additions, or the paste will sit in lumps and knock the air out.
- Moderate ovenRead as roughly 350F. The recipe gives no time; at that heat expect somewhere around 12 to 15 minutes, until set and lightly coloured on top. Higher and the outside browns before the inside dries.
- ShorteningThis may mean hydrogenated vegetable shortening, but in older American books the word can also cover lard or butter. Whatever fat you use, melt it and let it cool to just warm before it meets the cheese, or the cheese will grease out.
- The cheese2/3 cup grated is roughly 2.5 oz. A dry, sharp cheddar or a hard grating cheese works; anything young and wet will weep and flatten the puffs. Grate it fine so it folds in without tearing the foam.
- Egg whitesBeat to stiff but still glossy peaks, not dry and grainy. Whites beaten past that point break down under folding and the puffs bake solid.
- Size and yieldDropped from the tip of a teaspoon the batch should give a couple of dozen small puffs. The title suggests they were meant to go with a salad. A pan lined with parchment is more reliable than a greased sheet.
- Serve hot means hotThese are meringues in structure and they deflate as they cool. Bake them as the guests arrive rather than in advance; reheating brings back some crispness but not the volume.
The pairing of cheese and cayenne is inherited from the English savoury course, and cheese savouries raised on beaten egg white appear in American entertaining books of the early twentieth century, where 'meringue' was sometimes used loosely for any confection whose body is whipped white. Whether the shortening here reflects the spread of branded vegetable fats or simply the writer's own kitchen cannot be told from the page.