Meringue hates me. HATES ME! I’ve made it…tried to make it, more like…many times. SADLY it always failed. It turned out into flat sweet eggwhites. Not awesome.
NOT AWESOME!
BUT not this time:
How did I get it to work? I did what I do best — I did research.
See, just like with popovers, meringue works best with warm eggs (pro tip: pop them in a bowl of hot water for about 10 minutes and you are good). Why is this? When eggs are cold, their proteins are tightly packed and are less viscous — that makes them harder to whip. If you get them warm the proteins unfurl easier and reconstruct around the air bubbles you’ve introduced into the mix by whisking. It makes it less stable but it is so much easier to get the froth, and if you are a Nervous Nelly like me fast cuts down on anxiety.
Yolk is the enemy. Yolk is mostly fat…fat likes air bubbles and hugs them like they are best friends. That means the proteins can’t get a good grip on the air bubbles and just sit around like, “Hey, you invited me to the party first!”
That is why, grease is also the enemy, so make sure your bowl is super clean! Or again our lovely proteins will be left out in the cold and that is NOT what we want.
Age is the enemy as well. So many enemies! So fresh eggs make the best whipped eggs, or at least the more stable. Older eggs are more alkaline, and that causes the proteins to destabilize and allows the air bubbles to grow larger — thus unstable meringue. So, if you use old eggs whip fast and use them even faster!
SO, if you want to be able to tip your meringue over your head like they do on the Great British Bake Off (and not have it land in your hair), make sure the eggs are warm, fresh, and fat free!
