complicated mixtures.
Meringues: Sweet Foams
on Their Own
Though they’re sometimes folded into cake or
cookie batters or fillings, meringues —
sweetened egg foams — generally stand by
themselves as a discrete element in a dish: as
a frothy topping, for example, or a creamy
icing, or a hard edible container, or melt-in-
the-mouth decoration. A meringue foam must
therefore be stiff and stable enough to hold its
shape. The cook obtains both stiffness and
stability by the addition of sugar and/or of
heat. Meringues are often baked very slowly
in a low oven (200ºF/93ºC) to dry them out
into a brittle, pristinely white morsel or
container. (The door of electric ovens should
be left slightly ajar to allow the meringue’s
moisture to escape; gas ovens are already
vented.) When quickly browned in a hot oven