# Italian Meringue Technique Question



## castironchef (Oct 10, 2005)

How do you Pastry Pros manage to pour the hot sugar syrup into the beaten egg whites while the mixer is mixing, without getting the sugar spattered on the sides of the bowl, where it instantly congeals?

I use a home-style KA planetary mixer.

I've tried (a) pouring carefully from the saucepan into the space between the bowl and center of the beater's orbit, (b) doing the same from a Pyrex cup (sprayed with cooking spray) and (c) using a metal baster (after having basted one load of canola oil). In (a) & (b), I still get splatters from when the beater comes around and from the syrup not pouring directly down. In (c), it takes a long time and I fear that the syrup temperature is dropping before I can get it all into the mixer.

I'm almost ready to fish out the older-than-I-am, parents'-wedding-gift Sunbeam MixMaster, where the beaters stay on one side of the bowl and the bowl rotates.

What is the great technique?

Thanks for your wisdom (in this and all the other posts).


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## erik (Jan 23, 2006)

What I've always done is, using the saucepan or a measuring pitcher, pour down the inside wall of the bowl in a slow stream. I would avoid spraying the inside of your pyrex, you want to avoid getting any fats into your meringue (less of an issue if you are going to be making it into buttercream, of course)


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## chefpeon (Jun 14, 2006)

Yep, you can do like Erik and pour the syrup down the side of the bowl with the mixer at high speed, or you can pour the syrup into the "sweet spot" (between the whip and the side of the bowl) with the mixer at a slightly lower speed (like 7 or 8 instead of speed 10 on the KA). You always do get some hardened syrup on the side of the bowl no matter what you do....it's just par for the course.:crazy:


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

I tend to always get the pour down the side of the bowl and end up with that sugar residue. 
Why not try a Swiss Meringue?
:bounce:


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## jcakes (Feb 18, 2007)

You need to aim for the "sweet spot" - no pun intended!

Hold the pan at the same height as the speed selectors and pour slowly and steadily. The stream of sugar is less than the thickness of a pencil. The whites will expand to the top of the whip - at least they do in my KA when I'm doing a small batch.

You might even want to try this with just plain water into an empty bowl as you get the hang of it.


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## jcakes (Feb 18, 2007)

For what it's worth, today I was rushed and made a small batch of IMBC. Because I foolishly answered the phone moments before pouring in the syrup, I did it faster than usual, and a lot of the syrup ended up on the side of the mixer bowl. It's the first time this has happened to me and I thought of this thread. Maybe you're pouring too quickly?


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## mannlicher (Jan 8, 2006)

> I use a large metal spoon and just pour the sugar syrup between the beater and the side of the bowl. As others have said, you will always get some splatter, but this way there is not much, and its controlable.


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