On Food and Cooking

suitably colorful: except that the French
writer Massialot had already published a
recipe for “Meringues” in 1691.
The linguist Otto Jänicke has traced the
word meringue back to an alteration of the
Latin word merenda, meaning “light
evening meal,” into meringa, a form that
was found in the Artois and Picardie near
what is now Belgium. Jänicke cites many
variations on merenda that variously meant
“evening bread,” “shepherd’s loaf,” “food
taken to the field and forest,” “traveler’s
snack.”
What do breads and road food have to
do with whipped egg whites? Early baked
sugar-egg pastes were called “biscuits,”
“breads,” and “loaves” because they were
miniature imitations of these baked goods
(biscuits, being thoroughly dried and
therefore light and durable, were standard
traveler’s fare). Perhaps such a confection
was called meringa in northeast France.