Cooked Meringues

Cooked meringues are more trouble to make than uncooked meringues, and are generally denser because heat sets the albumen proteins and prematurely limits the trapping of air. However, they offer several advantages. Because sugar is more soluble in hot liquid than in cold, they more readily absorb a large proportion of sugar. Like the dense automatic meringue (above), they’re less brittle when dried down. Partial coagulation of the egg proteins stabilizes these foams enough to sit without separating for a day or more. And for cooks concerned about the safety of raw eggs, some cooked meringues get hot enough to kill salmonella bacteria.