More about Meringue and Egg Whites

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when pastry cooks started separating eggs and working the whites and yolks in different ways, they invented many of the basic dessert mixtures still used today. We’ve already seen what happens when the best-known meringue, sometimes called French meringue, is cooked in a mold in a bain-marie (Îies flottantes) or directly in simmering liquid (oeufs à la neige). It ends up having a soft and delightfully spongy texture. When a very similar meringue (still French meringue, but made with some powdered sugar to keep it dry) is baked, we end up with the crunchy white and sweet meringue that’s served with whipped cream or ice cream. In France, a cake called a vacherin is made by layering various ice creams or sorbets between rounds of baked meringue.