# Italian Meringue?



## maxon8 (May 24, 2006)

What is the advantage of making and using boiled Italian Meringue over that of the standard cold mixed egg white and sugar meringue that I have taken so long to perfect?.

maxo:n8


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## king10 (Apr 16, 2007)

hi the reason for that is its more stable than other while piping fancy shapes and also its safer in the terms of contracting food poisoning for the salmonella which lives in eggs many people use pasturized eggs to do the normal meringues


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Italian meringue (which, by the way, i've never encountered in italy!) tastes much better if you are going to just eat it - it makes a nice frosting all on its own, and you can add melted chocolate, and/or butter, and make chocolate meringue, or buttercream, or chocolate buttercream. You can add whipped cream when it's cooled, and freeze it for the absolutely best ice cream, without any crystal formation, and without an icecream maker, you can add first chocolate, beat it cool, and fold in whipped cream for an amazing mousse, or freeze it (again without an ice cream maker or stirring regularly) and make an amazing chocolate ice cream, creamy and rich and light at the same time. 
Plain meringue just doesn;t do all that. It is unstable, unless you cook it like on a lemon meringue pie, or if you make meringues, in which case i wouldnt bother to begin with italian meringue. It's just very different in texture and keeping quality and in what it does to the stuff you mix it with. 

I've also mixed it with pastry cream for a wonderful filling for cream puffs, etc.


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## erik (Jan 23, 2006)

italian meringue is needed when you are not going to cook it later. Common (or French) meringue, your 'perfected' preparation, is great if you'll be cooking/baking it before serving.


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## maxon8 (May 24, 2006)

siduri, 
Thank you for the reply, I think I need to make Italian meringue. If possible do you have an original recipe that I can use plus some tips for making the ice cream.

many thanks
maxon8


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Ok, this is the recipe for chocolate mousse ice cream from julia child's mastering the art of french cooking.

*italian meringue*

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
3 egg whites
pinch salt
pinch cream of tartar (I usually don't use it, comes out ok anyway)
1 tsp vanilla

Combine sugar and water in a small pot with well-fitting cover. Boil swirling pan by handle till sugar is dissolved. Don't put a spoon in it or anything, or later yuo will make crystals form. 
Cover pan and lower heat to simmer
Beat egg whites with c. of t. till stiff peaks. Add vanilla. 
Remove cover from pot and bring to high heat and boil till the bubbles begin to thicken and you have 238 degrees or soft ball stage. (any things you don;t know - like soft ball, or why not use spoon just ask)
Immediately begin beating the whites again and pour the boiling syrup slowly in a thin stream as you beat, like making mayonnaise. When all used up keep beating till room temp

You can frost a cake with this for a very pleasant fat-free frosting. 
(Or add soft butter and it's a soft, fluffy buttercream)

For* chocolate ice cream, *the best ever,

Melt about 6 oz (but you can go as high as 12 oz) good quality semi-sweet baking chocolate (about 60 to 70 % cocoa)
Add to the meringue as soon as it's done and keep beating till cool (if you have the possibility to beat over cold ice water that is much quicker)
Whip one pint of heavy cream till soft peaks form
fold into the coolish meringue and then freeze it in a bowl. 
Julia child does it in a mold, but this is fine just in a bowl
It will never make crystals, you just put it directly in the freezer, and it freezes soft and creamy. Make sure the meringue is not warm or it will deflate the cream

Without the chocolate you can just add whipped cream to the meringue and you have a wonderful vanilla ice cream. 
Fruit doesn;t work, though, because the liquid in the fruit makes crystals.


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## maxon8 (May 24, 2006)

Siduri, just a note to say thank you. Will try it out soon.

maxon8


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## harpua (May 4, 2005)

But swiss meringue is SO much simpler!!!


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

ok, so what is swiss meringue?


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## harpua (May 4, 2005)

Instead of pouring syrup into the whipped whites, for swiss meringue you beat egg whites and sugar over hot water a bit until the sugar dissolves, then you beat it kind of stiff in a kitchen aid. For buttercream, you just start adding butter. I used to do Italian but I like this much better. i've made pavlovas and other baked meringues with this and it's what I use for pie. I think it's foolproof. 

Is Italian Meringue a bit more stabler? Which desserts would you one it for exclusively?


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

not having a mixer that will allow me to put hot water under the egg white, i find the italian meringue much easier. i don't know the difference with swiss because i never made it.


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## z~bestus (Dec 13, 2005)

SIDURI:
Good afternoon. I believe we have posted once before about brioche baking. To clear up the matter of water & egg whites in doing the swiss meringue... you beat the whites together with the granulated sugar over a double boiler. Heat to 125 to 135 degrees. This will allow the sugar to melt. Then place this concoction into your mixing bowl & proceed to whip till your desired consistency, most often to stiff peaks.
Siduri, this technique gives the beaten whites more stability & volume. I use it for lemon meringue pie.
Good luck & enjoy the rest of the day.

~ZEE:chef:


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## drac (Aug 27, 2007)

I love the ice cream recipe!! Just what I need more reason to make it, I've burned up 4 mixers over the last few years making it. The longest lasting has been my Kitchen Aid going on 4 years.

Jim

P.S. - where my moms from (hills of Kentucky) we call it divinity


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Hi Zee, so we meet again.
i think the italian meringue is easier, since you beat the whites in the mixer, and separately boil the sugar syrup, not needing to stand there beating as it gets hot (I hate things that require hanging around not doing much except holding a mixer) and then pour the syrup into the whites slowly as you beat them. 
anyway, they're both stable, italian meringue will hold up for days. I guess they;re equivalent.


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## qahtan (Dec 7, 2003)

Look in this site, there are lots of meringue recipes plus a lot of helpful hints
like what to do and what not to do.....
qahtan

http://www.chsugar.com/Consumer/beyond_meringue.html


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## herbalam (Jun 4, 2009)

i'm a little worried about this...i'm having a wedding the end of june outside....90s for the temp and a pretty good amount of humidity. i want to do the italian buttercream...is it going to be safe to eat after sitting in the heat for a while? does substituting a merginue powder totally change things?


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Butter is safe to eat after being out, it just melts. The meringue is cooked so that should be safe, and it's pretty stable. 
However, what might happen is that the butter melts out of the buttercream. I don;t know how you would deal with that. 

I did a wedding cake in 100 degree heat without air conditioning. I froze the layers as i made them, then froze them when i sandwiched them together with ganache or white chocolate cream cheese buttercream (they alternated) and then put the whole thing together while still frozen, and refrigerated and brought it to the wedding place where it stayed in the fridge till the buffet began. It defrosted outside (by then the outside temp was down to maybe 85 - 90) and it stayed stable. But there was no meringue buttercream. The white chocolate cream cheese buttercream was great, becasuse the chocolate stabilizes it. You might experiment with using melted white chocolate in the meringue with a little butter. Mixing butter and white chocolate should make the resulting buttercream more stable. Leave it out in the heat and see what happens. White chocolate adds no chocolate flavor, but adds a great texture and creaminess. No one can identify the "secret ingredient"


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