Meringue Mixture For Meringues A L'americaine

Put two whites of eggs into a pan with a pinch of salt and whip till quite stiff, then mix with a quarter of a pound of castor sugar; place a similar quantity of eggs into another pan, add a few drops of carmine, whip till quite stiff, then mix with a quarter of a pound of castor sugar, and use.

Mushroom Meringues - Champignons Meringues

Whip four whites of eggs very stiff with a pinch of salt, and mix with it half a pound of castor sugar, taking care not to work the eggs more than possible after the sugar is mixed in; then put it into a forcing bag with a plain pipe about half an inch in diameter, and have two baking-tins warmed and rubbed over with a little white wax; when the tins are cool, take one of them and force the meringues out on to it in little rounds for making the tops of the mushrooms, and then dust them over immediately with icing sugar, and put them in a very slow oven to dry for three or four hours. Put some more of the mixture in a forcing bag with a pipe about one-eighth of an inch in diameter, and force it out into shapes to form the stalks of the mushrooms, and then dust these over with icing sugar, and cook them in the same way as the others. When they are quite dry take the large pieces of meringue and make a little round hole about the size of a pea in the centre, using a small knife for the purpose; force inside this a little Royal icing (vol. i.), and then very lightly brush over the part of the meringue that was on the baking-tin with a little raw white of egg, and dip it into some finely-grated Fry's Caracas Chocolate, and brush over the flat part of the larger pieces with a little raw white of egg, and then dip into powdered chocolate; let this get quite dry, stick the small part of the meringue as a stalk into the space formed by the knife, and then dish up the mushrooms on a basket partly filled with spun sugar, artificial moss, or maidenhair fern-leaves, and serve for dessert, or the mushrooms can be dished up on a pile of very stiffly-whipped cream that is sweetened and flavoured with vanilla essence, which can be coloured, if liked, with a little carmine. The mushrooms, if kept in a dry place, will keep for a considerable time.

Italian Meringues Meringues A L'italienne

Put into a thick clean stewpan one pound of loaf-sugar and half a pound of clean water; place the pan on the stove and boil the contents till into a perfectly thick syruplike cream, removing any scum as it rises to the surface with a clean iron spoon. Put into a whipping-tin or bowl eight fresh raw whites of eggs, add a pinch of salt and whip them as for ordinary meringues with a whisk till quite stiff, then add the syrup prepared as above, pouring it in by degrees and mixing it in very carefully. Put this mixture into a forcing bag with a large plain pipe and force it out into the desired shapes on to tins that have been rubbed over with white wax, and then set aside till cold. Dust the meringues over quite thickly with Marshall's Icing Sugar, using a dredger for the purpose; put them in a very moderate oven and bake till a pale fawn colour and quite crisp and brittle, when they can easily be removed from the tin by means of a palette-knife; take them up, and serve when cool with whipped cream, ices, etc. These meringues keep well if put in a clean box in a dry place, and the mixture may be coloured if liked, in which case a little of Marshall's Liquid Carmine should be added to the syrup when put on to boil.