Basic Meringues

Appears in
Professional Cooking: 10th Edition
Professional Cooking

By Wayne Gisslen

Published 2025

  • About
The stiffness to which meringues are beaten may vary, as long as they are not beaten until they are too stiff and dry. For most purposes, they are beaten until they form stiff, or nearly stiff, moist peaks.
  1. Common meringue is made from egg whites at room temperature, beaten with sugar. It is the easiest to make, and it is reasonably stable due to the high percentage of sugar.
  2. Swiss meringue is made from egg whites and sugar warmed over a double boiler while beating. Warming gives this meringue better volume and stability.
  3. Italian meringue is made by beating a hot sugar syrup into the egg whites. This meringue is the most stable of the three because the egg whites are actually cooked by the heat of the syrup. When flavored with vanilla, this meringue is also known as boiled icing. It is also used in meringue-type buttercream icings.