Marginal Meringues

April 9, 2004 | By Adam Roberts | COMMENTS

While I was making my ice cream today (post to follow), I was left with three unused egg whites in a bowl. Not wanting to be wasteful, I channelled the late great Chief Joseph who reminded me that Native Americans eat every part of the buffalo. I, in turn, would eat every part of the egg. I would make meringues.

“Sissy,” said Chief Joseph.

I dumped the egg whites into the mixing bowl:

I then followed a recipe I printed out on Epicurious. (The recipe called for two egg whites, so I found another recipe that called for three to figure out the proportion of sugar).

Anyway, I whipped until soft peaks formed:

I took soft peak to mean that the whites dangled off the end of the mixing impliment without standing up on their own.

Then I added 7 Tbs of sugar (which turned out to be too much, I think) and mixed until hard peaks formed:

Notice the elegant sheen.

Then you dollup a teaspoons worth into little kisses on a floured, buttered cookie sheet. I took teaspoon to mean mega Tablespoonfull and had complicated results because of that:

See with the teaspoon scenario, they bake at 200 degrees for 45 minutes. With the portions I used, they came out crazy gross. Like gooey gummy and disturbingly chewy. And definitely not cooked enough.

So I put them back in the oven at 200 degrees and cooked them for a half hour more. Then they came out basically good:

I liked that they didn’t cost me anything. And I like that they’re not that bad for you: just egg whites and sugar.

“And don’t forget,” says Chief Joseph, “you conserved every part of the egg.”

“True,” I say.

“Sissy.”

Categories: Desserts, Recipes