Meringue

 Let's talk meringue.

The French must be secret pyromaniacs, they take a blow torch to everything!

Meringue is defined as whipped egg whites with sugar. It is a building block of pastry and something EVERYONE should know. It's the equivalent of knowing how to boil water. Basics. And like many things, people have different names for them. Is it a submarine roll or a hoagie? That kind of thing.

I want this shirt!

Well, I recently came across such a disparity at work the other day when I was placing some strawberry shortcakes on a stand near the Produce department. A customer walked by and praised the cakes, asking me if that was Seven Minute Icing.

What?

I'd never heard of Seven Minute Icing before. I told her it was Whipped Icing and she asked me to repeat myself and that she was having trouble understanding me. (I'm from California and people ask me to repeat things all the time because of my 'accent').  Finally I told her it was Cool Whip. She then asked me if I knew what SMI was and I told her I'd never heard of it before. She then gasped and called another customer over and said "She's never heard of Seven Minute Icing!"
 

I asked her what it was, because I'm studying pastry and want to know. She said it was egg whites, sugar, vanilla, corn syrup and such cooked over a double boiler.

"Oh! It's Italian meringue! I know what that is."

"No, it's not a meringue..."

"But it's beaten egg whites with sugar?"

"Yes, but it's not a meringue."

"..."

Proof:

Recipe for 7 minute icing (Courtesy of Allrecipes.com):

• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 1/3 cup cold water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Put egg whites, sugar, water and syrup in top of double boiler. Beat until mixed well. Place over rapidly boiling water. Beat constantly with electric beater while it cooks for 7 minutes or until it will stand in peaks when beater is raised. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Beat. Fills and frosts 2 layer cake, 8 or 9 inch.

Italian Meringue recipe (courtesy of Ochef.com):

Ingredients:
 

For the Egg Whites:
 
2/3 cup egg whites (4 to 5 whites)
A pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

For the Sugar Syrup:
 
1-1/3 cups sugar
1/2 cup water

Instructions:

Beat the egg whites at slow speed until the foam throughout, add the salt and cream of tartar, gradually increase the speed to fast, and beat to soft peaks. Turn the machine to slow as you complete the sugar syrup.
Bring the sugar and water to the simmer, swirl the pan to dissolve the sugar completely, cover tightly and boil to the soft-ball stage (234°F to 240°F; 112°C to 116°C on a candy thermometer).

Beating the egg whites at moderately slow speed, dribble into them the boiling syrup — trying to avoid the wires of the whip. Increase speed to moderately fast and beat until cool and the egg whites form stiff, shining, upstanding peaks. The meringue is now ready to use as your recipe direct




To me, Seven Minute Icing it nothing more than an 'Americanization' of Italian Meringue, much the same way Baker's Buttercream is the 'Americanized' French Buttercream.

Speaking of buttercream, if you want to make Italian Meringue buttercream, just make the Italian Meringue and add butter.