Meringue III
⅞ cup powdered sugar 2 tablespoons lemon juice Put whites of eggs and sugar in bowl, beat mixture until stiff enough to hold its shape, add lemon juice drop by drop, continuing the beating. It will take thirty minutes to beat mixture sufficiently stiff to hold its shape, but when baked it makes a most delicious meringue.
Meringues Glacées, or Kisses Whites 4 eggs ½ teaspoon vanilla 1¼ cups powdered sugar or 1 cup fine granulated Beat whites until stiff. add gradually two-thirds of sugar, and continue beating until mixture will hold its shape; fold in remaining sugar, and add flavoring. Shape with a spoon or pastry bag and tube on wet board covered with letter paper. Bake thirty minutes in very slow oven, remove from paper, and put together in pairs, or if intending to fill with whipped cream or ice cream remove soft part with spoon and place meringues in oven to dry.
Two meringues sit together here: an uncooked-looking beaten meringue stiffened with lemon juice, and the piped and dried shells known as meringues glac y more attained by patience than by heat.
- "Powdered sugar" in this bookIn turn-of-the-century American usage powdered sugar means a finely milled granulated sugar, not the cornstarch-cut confectioners' sugar sold today. Superfine (caster) sugar is the closest match; modern confectioners' sugar will work but gives a slightly softer, chalkier shell.
- Very slow ovenRead "very slow" as 200-250F. At that temperature the shells dry rather than bake, and thirty minutes is a minimum — large piped shells often need an hour or more, then a rest in the turned-off oven.
- Thirty minutes of beatingThat figure assumes a hand whisk or a rotary egg beater. A stand mixer reaches the same stiff, glossy, sugar-dissolved stage in 8-12 minutes on medium-high. Judge by the meringue holding a firm upright peak and feeling smooth, not gritty, between the fingers.
- Lemon juice drop by dropThe acid is doing structural work as well as adding flavour: it helps the egg white proteins set into a stable foam. Adding it slowly keeps the foam from deflating; a pinch of cream of tartar does similar work with less liquid.
- Letter paper on a wet boardLetter paper was plain writing paper; it was laid over a wet board, the dampness presumably to keep the paper from scorching. Use parchment on a sheet pan; no wetting needed.
- Filling the shellsIf they are to hold whipped cream or ice cream, scoop the marshmallowy interior out while the shells are still warm, then return them to the low oven to dry through. Fill close to serving, since cream softens the shell.
- YieldFour egg whites give roughly two dozen spoon-sized shells, or a dozen filled pairs.
- StorageDried shells keep a week in an airtight tin. Humidity is the enemy — they go tacky on a damp day and are best made in dry weather.
Meringue reached American cookbooks by way of French pastry, and the piped and dried version was also known in American kitchens as "kisses," as the heading here shows. The Boston Cooking-School book gives several numbered meringues covering different uses -- a soft topping browned on a pie, a stiff acid-set meringue that held up without much oven heat, and dried shells to be filled with whipped cream or ice cream. All of them use up whites left over from yolk-heavy custards and cream fillings.