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Meringues
(Paris.) Beat the whites of 5 eggs very stiff, add slowly 1 pound of the finest pulverized sugar, beat long and well, then drop in spoonfuls on sheets of oiled paper, set on tin or boards. Bake until yellow, cut them off, and join two together. This makes 25 small meringues. Use for afternoon tea.
A terse Parisian formula that assumes you already know how meringues behave. Two things in it need translation: the oven, which is never mentioned, and the word "yellow."
- The hinge: low and slowNo temperature is given, as is usual in books of this kind; a slack or falling oven is the likely intent. Around 200-225F for 1 to 1.5 hours, then left in the switched-off oven to dry, suits them. Much above 250F risks colouring the sugar.
- "Bake until yellow"Best read as the faintest ivory tint rather than a golden colour; a distinctly yellow meringue is likely to be chewy rather than crisp. Ovens of the period were uneven, so some colour may have been hard to avoid.
- The sugar ratioOne pound of sugar (about 450 g) to five whites (roughly 150-170 g of white) is well over one and a half times the modern standard of 50-60 g sugar per white. The result is a very hard, sweet, long-keeping shell. Cutting the sugar to about 300 g brings it into modern proportions and gives a lighter meringue that still holds its shape.
- "Finest pulverized sugar"The period term refers to sugar ground fine; the closest thing today is caster or superfine sugar rather than modern confectioners' sugar, which contains cornstarch. If you only have granulated, pulse it briefly in a food processor.
- Adding the sugar"Slowly" is doing real work here. Add it a spoonful at a time to whites already at stiff peaks, and keep beating until the mixture is glossy and no grit remains when you rub a little between your fingers, several minutes at least.
- Oiled paper on boardsParchment on a heavy baking sheet replaces this, and needs no oil. The boards, offered here as an alternative to tin, would have moderated bottom heat; a double-stacked sheet or a sheet set on the middle rack does the same.
- "Cut them off"Fully dried meringues lift cleanly. If they stick, they are likely underbaked; return them to the oven rather than prising them with a knife.
- Joining and yieldThe book's "makes 25 small meringues" most likely counts shells, which would give about a dozen finished pairs. No filling is named; sweetened whipped cream is the usual period choice, added shortly before serving. Filled meringues soften quickly, while unfilled shells keep for several days in an airtight tin.
Meringue is generally traced to French and Swiss pastry work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with the technique of drying beaten whites and sugar in a slack oven well established by the time Antonin Carême described piping them with a bag in the early nineteenth century; the name's origin is disputed, most often linked to the Swiss town of Meiringen, though that story is traditional rather than documented. The recipe carries the heading "(Paris.)", and its closing line is "use for afternoon tea" — placing the dish at the tea table, where a sweet that could be baked days ahead and filled at the last moment was worth a great deal.