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Baltimore Kisses
Beat the whites of four small eggs to a high, firm froth, stir into it half a pound pulverized sugar, flavor with essence lemon or rose, continue to beat until very light; then drop half the size of an egg, and a little more than an inch apart, on well-buttered letter-paper; lay the paper on a half-inch board and place in a moderate oven; watch, and as soon as they begin to look yellowish take them out; or, beat to a stiff froth the whites of two eggs, stirring into them very gradually two tea-cups powdered sugar and two table-spoons corn starch; bake on buttered tins fifteen minutes in a warm oven, or until slightly brown. Chocolate puffs are made by adding two ounces grated chocolate mixed with the corn starch. -Mrs. W. W. W.
Two meringue formulas in one entry: a plain French meringue and a starch-stabilized version that also becomes the chocolate variation. The instructions are workable, but the oven guidance is the part that has moved most.
- Oven heatThe book gives no temperatures. A "moderate oven" is conventionally reckoned somewhere near 350F, with a "warm oven" less than that. Modern meringue practice is far cooler — 250-300F — so the sugar dries rather than caramelizes. The recipe's own cue is the real instruction: pull them the moment they take any color.
- The hinge: a clean, dry bowlAny trace of yolk, fat or water keeps the whites from reaching the "high, firm froth" this depends on. Separate cold eggs, whip them at room temperature, and add the sugar gradually, as the second version specifies, or the froth collapses.
- Pulverized sugarThis means finely ground sugar. Modern powdered (confectioners') sugar contains a little cornstarch, though far less than the two tablespoons the second formula calls for, so it does not replace it. Superfine or caster sugar gives a glossier meringue.
- Half a pound of sugarAbout 2 cups of powdered sugar, or a little over 1 cup granulated by weight. Four small eggs give perhaps 3½ oz of white, so the sugar runs to roughly twice the weight of the whites, about the usual meringue proportion.
- Tea-cupsA nineteenth-century tea-cup is not a standard measuring cup and runs anywhere from ¾ cup to a full cup. Two tea-cups of powdered sugar against two egg whites is generous; start at 1½ cups and stop when the meringue holds a firm peak.
- Letter-paper and the half-inch boardUse parchment on a heavy baking sheet. The buttered writing paper laid over a plank was a way of insulating the bottoms from a fierce brick-oven floor; a doubled sheet pan does the same job, and parchment needs no butter.
- Essence of lemon or roseBoth were standard flavoring extracts of the period. Rose water is still sold, but it is much weaker than the old alcoholic essences — start with a scant teaspoon and taste the raw meringue.
- Chocolate puffsTwo ounces of grated chocolate means unsweetened block chocolate, not chips. Sift it with the cornstarch and fold it in at the very end; scattered cocoa fat will deflate whites that are still being beaten.
- Yield and keepingDrops "half the size of an egg" from four whites give roughly two to three dozen. Cool them completely and store airtight the same day, since meringue draws moisture from humid air and goes leathery overnight.
"Kisses" was the standard American name through the second half of the nineteenth century for what French cooks called meringues — small baked drops of sweetened egg white, sometimes sandwiched in pairs, which is generally given as the reason for the name. The Dixie Cook Book, like its close relative Buckeye Cookery, was assembled from contributed receipts credited to their donors by initial, and this one carries Mrs. W. W. W.; place-name kisses (Baltimore, Boston, Vienna) appear throughout such books, though the names are not reliably a mark of true regional origin. The entry is also a record of a kitchen without parchment or nonstick metal: buttered letter-paper on a wooden board was the ordinary defense against the uneven bottom heat of a wood-fired oven.