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Meringue Marses
Make jelly slices like the last, but instead of plain sugar icing pile a thick covering of stiff meringue on top of the large strips, then with a knife dipped in hot water cut down through the meringue and cake and bring the knife straight up again, so as to divide the cake in narrow strips without displacing the meringue much. Smooth the sides and top of each piece, then bake in a slack oven to a light fawn color. The sheets of cake for this form need not be split, but jelly spread on the top and meringue on the jelly. The name "marse" is probably foreign.
A bakery formula written for someone who already has the preceding jelly-slice recipe in front of them: a sheet of plain cake, jelly, and a meringue lid, cut into bars before baking rather than after. The whole thing hinges on cutting through the meringue with a hot blade so the edges stay square.
- "Like the last" means a plain sheet cake"Like the last" means the jelly slices immediately preceding — a sheet of cake spread with jelly and cut into strips, there finished with plain sugar icing. The recipe implies the earlier sheets were split; here they need not be, so jelly goes on top of the single sheet and meringue on the jelly.
- A slack ovenSlack is the coolest working oven heat in books of this period; it is usually glossed at somewhere around 250-300F. It is a drying heat rather than a baking one — the meringue sets and colors faintly without weeping or cracking. At 350F the tops would brown and blister before the interior firmed.
- Light fawn colorPale tan, barely darker than ivory. At so low a heat the bake will be slow, but the recipe gives no time. Judge by color and by the meringue feeling dry and firm to a light touch.
- Stiff meringue means a heavy oneFor a piled covering that holds a cut edge, use about 1/4 cup sugar per egg white, beaten to stiff, glossy peaks. A soft or under-sugared meringue will slump into the knife cut and the strips will fuse back together.
- The hot knifeA thin blade dipped in hot water is the trick the recipe names. Cut straight down and bring the knife straight up again — the instruction is explicit on that point, since dragging or sawing pulls the meringue off the jelly. Re-dipping the blade between cuts will help.
- Cut before baking, not afterThe division is made while the meringue is raw and the sides are then smoothed by hand or with a small palette knife. Once baked, meringue shatters under a knife and the pieces cannot be tidied.
The American Pastry Cook appears to belong to the run of late nineteenth-century American trade manuals written for hotel and restaurant pastry departments rather than for home cooks, which would explain why the instructions assume you have just read the previous formula and will not be told the cake again. Jelly-and-meringue bars of this kind combined cheap sheet cake, a spread of whatever fruit jelly was on hand, and meringue made from the whites left over from custards and glazes elsewhere in the kitchen. The author's own aside that "the name 'marse' is probably foreign" is worth taking at face value; he did not know where it came from either.