Meringue Topping help. 7606

Ward Abbott

Actually, neither of you has made Italian meringue. The recipe below is for something else. He hints at the correct way to do it, but the method he posed here won't get the same results.

Italian meringue is made by boiling a sugar syrup to the soft ball stage and whipping that 240¡F syrup into whipped egg whites. It cooks the egg whites almost instantly.

Saving time is admirable, when the results are the same and time is actually saved.

You can be pretty sure that any significantly harmful bacteria will be sufficiently reduced in number by the time you get to 140¡F that this isn't much of an issue. But if the temperature should be at least 160¡F, how about at most? Given the technique, heating it too much is a possibility. In that case, the meringue would "sugar" or become gritty. It could be fixed (maybe) by beating in a little boiling water. If not cooked enough, it would be thin and runny, but you wouldn't know that until the end. I suppose the meringue could be put back over the simmering water, but, in either case, there goes the saved time and results will vary.

The balance of ingredients for a real Italian meringue would be: 2 cups sugar 1 cup water 2 egg whites (at room temperature) 1-8 teaspoon salt 1-8 teaspoon cream of tartar (or several drops lemon juice) 1 teaspoon vanilla

The technique is to combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and cook maybe 4 minutes, covered, so the steam will wash down any crystals on the pan sides. Remove the cover and cook to 238¡-240¡F. Meanwhile, whip the egg whites and salt until frothy, and, whipping constantly, pour the syrup into the mixing bowl in a thin stream until it's all in the bowl. Mix for another minute or two until it's fully thickened. Add the cream of tartar and vanilla and whip in thoroughly, another minute or so.

That's an Italian meringue as a boiled icing.

An Italian meringue for topping pies would be even more dense and have these ingredients: 1 cup sugar 1-2 cup water 3 egg whites 1-4 teaspoon cream of tartar Same technique as above. This gives about 1-2 cup finished meringue per egg white. In this case, beating continues until the meringue is cooled enough to spread on the pie filling, mousse or pudding.

I'm sure the recipe here would make something good, but I don't like it when clbuttic names are used for something else. Not that I'm a purist about how to function in a kitchen. Just that words mean things and when people use the old word for something very different than that which has been described by the old word, it dilutes meanings. Creates confusion.

Like going into a restaurant and seeing on the menu, "A Napoleon of smoked salmon, grilled fillo sheets, caramelized Maui onion, sour cream and caper berries." A Napoleon is a very specific dessert pastry. Using it to simply be a subsbreastute for "stack" or "pile" of food devalues both descriptions.

So while this is a meringue, it just isn't an Italian meringue. Language and communication issue.

Tomorrow's issue will concern window screen repair: Plastic screening... threat or menace?

Italian meringue isn't light and fluffy. It's rather dense and pipes a very sharp line. The general rule of thumb is one scant cup of finished icing per egg white.

Funny sort of declaration to put at the end of a recipe. Almost anticipating-expecting the several possible valid questions raised. Could have avoided it just by saying it was *like* an Italian meringue rather than to have posited a different technique that will yield a different result, but still retaining the old name.

Pastorio