Magic Meringue 🪄🥚
Dreamy Pavlova Show-Stopper 🎂
Greetings Friends,
Wishing you all Easter and Holiday Greetings. 🐣 🐇 🥚
Got a showstopper dessert 🎂 lined up for you today… and it’s a base is one of the most versatile culinary ingredients available.
The humble egg 🥚 🙌
Octopod Artisan Kitchenware
Only a few remaining cutting boards and salad server sets remain from the one-time Artisan Kitchenware release.
These were handcrafted by a good friend who designed kitchen and servingware when I had my restaurants BITD.
Due to costs, importing, shipping and logistics this is a one time run. Get them while you can.
If you missed the full Substack release details, see below.
Magical Eggs 🥚
Any legit chef will tell you that mastering egg cookery is one of the best skills that makes you an incredibly versatile cook.
Eggs truly are magical.
Comprised of a white and yolk… the egg is so simple to look at that it easily deceives most to take it for granted.
Keeping the egg intact has a wide variety of possibilities ⬇️
And there are just as many uses when you separate the white from the yolk (each with different uses in the kitchen).
Yolk: containing the fat of the egg as well as the bulk of the iron, folate and vitamins. The yolk also contains a high amount of lecithin which is an emulsifier. This is why yolks are perfect for making many sauces that need to be emulsified.
Note: Emulsifying is the process of mixing water and fat based liquids together into a smooth and homogeneous sauce. Fat (Oil) and Water don’t mix… but with emulsifiers this is possible
Think of mayonnaise, creamy salad dressings, beurre blanc (white wine butter sauce), hollandaise (classic on eggs benedict or asparagus), and one of my favorite… bearnaise sauce 🤤.
On top of that egg yolks are essential for ice creams, specifically frozen custards. (Soft serve ice creams usually contain no eggs). The fats and emulsifiers in the yolk help create a creamy and smooth mouthfeel in ice cream.
Another off-the-radar use for yolks is to cure them. Grated over fresh pastas 🍝 or salad 🥗 and even risotto 🍚 can be delicious.
White: Contrastly, the white has no fat. It accounts for 66+% of the eggs total protein content. Egg whites (aka Albumen) are rich in Albumins which dissolve in water. When heated the albumins solidify which is seen as egg whites turning solid and white when cooked.
The real magic with egg whites are that protein networks. As the proteins are agitated (or beaten/whisked) they unfold and create a wide matrix that can trap air (or other ingredients. So think of them foamers and filters.
As a foam, egg whites have a number of magical uses, today we are just covering one.
One other note to mention, is that egg whites can act as a filter. In the classic Consommé 🇫🇷 (clarified stock) preparation, a mixture of beaten eggs (with a few other ingredients) are mixed into a stock, and slowly heated. As the whites solidify from the heat, a mass forms on the top (called a raft) and catches all solids in the stock as it slowly simmers. Another cool, and OG technique that’s been around a long time.
But let’s talk meringue.
Meringue
Most people are familiar with meringues but there are (3) separate techniques for making meringue.
Culinary definition of Meringue: Confection made from whisked egg-white and sugar, baked slowly in a cool oven; flavouring may be added, and the meringues may be filled with cream, ice cream, or fruit.
Any time I think of meringues (to this day), I think of the storebought meringue nests my mom would pop out and fill with fruit. I thought it was so fancy then learned years later it was a super cheap dessert to buy. 😂
The (3) styles of meringue result in different textures. A quick TLDR
French 🇫🇷
This meringue has no heat applied during mixing. Simply whipped whites with sugar added. This makes the least stable meringue, but also the lightest. Perfect for making soufflés.
Italian 🇮🇹
This meringue is made with a sugar syrup that has been heated to the soft-ball candy stage (236°F to 240°F). Poured into the egg whites while mixing, this makes the most stable meringue and is perfect for buttercreams and mousses.
Swiss 🇨🇭
Swiss meringue is made by whisking sugar and egg whites together over a pot of simmering water until they are very warm, then whipping them. This creates an extremely fine texture meringue. Most people use this for topping pies but this is also my go-to for Floating Islands (Ile Flottante 🇫🇷 ) 😋
Which bring us to… ⬇️
Pavlova
Crisp meringue, cream & fruit.
Sounds basic… but it’s anything but. It’s pure alchemy.
The Australians and New Zealanders have been arguing over where the Pavlova originated. Supposedly named after Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova, who toured Australia and New Zealand in 1926. Soon after the meringue-based dessert named after the ballerina supposedly appeared from admiring chefs. But recently historians found recipes of almost exact identity in Germany 🇩🇪 & the USA 🇺🇸 that were all before 1926. So while the origin story is fascinating it is not settled.
The most important part of the pavlova meringue recipe is: it should be a crisp exterior with a soft marshmallow like center.
Combined with fresh fruit and a whipped cream mixture… it’s light and balanced.. yet decadent and a showstopper.
Let’s make this together!
