Misha's Meringue Malaise - was, Re: [Sca-cooks] Newby to the list

[Pixel, Queen of Cats]

On Fri, 6 Jul 2001, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> XvLoverCrimvX at aol.com wrote:
>
> > On to food comment:I tried to make a baked mint meringue that would hopefully
> > be somewhat crunchy and the melt-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hand mint
> > meringue. I whipped the eggs, added the sugar in little by little, had the
> > bowl over ice and cooked it but it still went wrong. Help me!!
>
> In what way did it go wrong? The first thing that comes to mind is that
> you don't want the bowl over ice when beating egg whites (we _are_ just
> talking about egg whites here, no?); ice is for when you're beating
> cream, and not strictly necessary for that, either, but I think ice
> would hinder rather than help in making meringue.
>
> So, are we talking about complete failure to puff up and turn white in
> the beating stage, or did they somehow cook wrong? What kind of mint
> flavoring did you use? Oven temp? Cooking time? Are you sure the bowl
> was clean, free of all fat, including yolks? Is it very humid where you live?
>
> Insufficient data...
>
> Adamantius

Also, what kind of bowl? Plastic, metal, glass? Plastic can have scratches
which hide fat or soap, which will also cause your whites to not beat
up. What else did you put in besides mint flavor and sugar?

If it failed in the baking stage, how did you shape it, and how thick did
you make it?

Margaret FitzWilliam