Meringue Quotes

“She savors each bite: the meringue is perfect crispy brown on top, melts in the mouth; the lemon tart, custardy; the crust breaks away.”
― A.M. Homes

“What tempts you, Pippa?"
"I-" She hesitated. "I care a great deal for meringue."
He laughed, the sound bigger and bolder than she expected.
"It's true."
"No doubt you do. But you may have meringue anytime you like." He stood back and indicated that she should enter the carriage.
She ignored the silent command, eager to make her point. "Not so. If the cook has not made it, I cannot eat it."
A smile played on his lips. "Ever-practical Pippa. If you want it, you can find it. That's my point. Surely, somewhere in London, someone will take pity upon you and satisfy your craving for meringue."
Her brow furrowed. "Therefore, I am not tempted by it?"
"No. You desire it. But that's not the same thing. Desire is easy. It's as simple as you wish to have meringue, and meringue is procured." He waved a hand toward the interior of the carriage but did not offer to help her up. "In."
She ascended another step before turning back. The additional height brought them eye to eye. "I don't understand. What is temptation, then?"
"Temptation..." He hesitated, and she found herself leaning forward, eager for this curious, unsettling lesson. "Temptation turns you. It makes you into something you never dreamed, it presses you to give up everything you ever loved, it calls you to sell your soul for one, fleeting moment."
The words were low and dark and full of truth, and they hovered in the silence for a long moment, an undeniable invitation. He was close, protecting her from toppling off the block, the heat of him wrapping around her despite the cold. "It makes you ache," he whispered, and she watched the curve of his lips in the darkness. "You'll make any promise, swear any oath. For one... perfect... unsoiled taste."
Oh, my.
Pippa exhaled, long and reedy, nerves screaming, thoughts muddled. She closed her eyes, swallowed, forced herself back, away from him and the way he... tempted her.
Why was he so calm and cool and utterly in control?
Why was he not riddled with similar... feelings?
He was a very frustrating man.
She sighed. "That must be a tremendous meringue."
A beat followed the silly, stupid words... words she wished she could take back. How ridiculous. And then he chuckled, teeth flashing in the darkness. "Indeed," he said, the words thicker and more gravelly than before.”
― Sarah MacLean, One Good Earl Deserves a Lover

“Driven by heartache, she beat the eggs even more vigorously until the glossy meringue quickly formed into stiff, bird's beak peaks.
"Philippe, do you have any orange liqueur?" Marie asked, rummaging through her brother's pantry.
"Here it is," Philippe said, handing a corked bottle to her. "What are you making?"
"A bûche de Noël," Danielle said, concentrating on her task. Carefully measuring each rationed ingredient, she combined sugar and flour in another bowl, grated orange zest, added the liqueur, and folded the meringue into the mixture.
"It's not Christmas without a traditional Yuletide log." Marie ran a finger down a page of an old recipe book, reading directions for the sponge cake, or biscuit. "'Spread into a shallow pan and bake for ten minutes.'"
"I wouldn't know about that," Philippe said. "I don't celebrate your husband's holiday," he said pointedly to Marie.
"Let's not dredge up that old argument, mon frère," Marie said, softening her words with a smile. "I converted for love."
A knock sounded at the front door. Danielle threw a look of concern toward Philippe, who hurried to answer it.
"Then we'll cool it," Danielle said, trying to stay calm. "And brush the surface with coffee liqueur and butter cream frosting, roll it like a log, and decorate." She thought about the meringue mushrooms she had made with Nicky last year, and how he had helped score the frosting to mimic wood grains.”
― Jan Moran, Scent of Triumph

“It's a parade of flawless tuna deliciousness! But by far, the most dangerous piece... is the one that looks like a bomb of pure tuna goodness, the straw-grilled, seared noten sushi!
The noten- a cut of meat from the top of the tuna's head- is one of the priciest cuts. Extravagantly fatty, its richness melds with the fragrant searing into a powerful duo! Yet there isn't the first hint of fishiness! Searing it using aromatic straw burned it away, leaving only pure savory flavor behind to please both nose and palate!"
"His Trace was dead-on. Looks like it really will be his arrangements on that Gunkan Maki that decide this card."
"I can't even begin to guess what it tastes like."
What's this on top of the minced tuna and leeks?! Is it... meringue?!
"Aah! Now I see! I know what Subaru Mimasaka took out at that moment! It was the same smoked soy sauce he passed to Kuga!"
The mellow, full-bodied aroma of smoked soy sauce has seeped into every crevice of the minced tuna...
... while the differing textures of the meringue and the negitoro create deeper, more complex layers to the flavor!
If I were to name it, I would call it the "Ultimate Negitoro Eggs-over-Rice Gunkan Sushi"! Minced tuna rib meat mixed with leeks and smoked soy sauce, topped with quail-egg yolk”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 27 [Shokugeki no Souma 27]

“What a gentle, pleasing flavor! It's as if I've taken a bite of powdery snow! Using that special explosion oven, she baked thin sheets of piecrust at a high temperature until they were nice and crispy... layering them together to create a mille-feuille! One bite and they crumble into delicate flakes... which then meld with the elegantly smooth and sweetly rich meringue created by the blades of her chain carving knife!
"Excellently done! With every bite I take...
... my mouth fills with flavorful joy. It's so good I can't help but writhe in my seat!"
What?! Out of nowhere... my tongue was assaulted with an explosion of thick, full-bodied sweetness?
"Ah! There are flakes of chocolate in between the mille-feuille layers?"
"I call those my CLUSTER CHOCO CHIPS. I mixed almond powder and mint leaves into chocolate and then chilled it until it was good and hard."
Crushing that chocolate with a sledgehammer, I deployed the fragments into the piecrust, set to explode with just enough firepower! Protected by the layers of crust, the chocolate didn't melt during baking and was instead tempered... resulting in chocolate chips that have the crunch and richness of baking chocolate!
The more you eat, the more you trip, setting off a chain of explosions...
... as if triggering a cluster bomb!
"These are the specs of what I have dubbed...
... my CLUSTER BOMB CAKE!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 34 [Shokugeki no Souma 34]

“She told the audience that they were going to make a fine old chestnut, Baked Alaska. "First you have to have a soft meringue, at just the perfect stage." The camera went in for a close-up of the meringue. "We have six egg whites, superfine sugar, and vanilla, with some cream of tartar to keep them stable. Are they ready, Danny?"
"Not quite," he said and ran the machine for a few seconds. "There." He removed the bowl and held it out for Sally to see.
"Stiff, but not dry," she said. "But we'd better be sure." And she rested an egg on the whites and told the audience that it should sink in exactly one inch. "Perfect. Let's put the Baked Alaska together."
Sally brushed the cake with rum-flavored sugar syrup while Danny explained what it was; then Danny turned the ice cream out on top of the cake and Sally pulled off the plastic wrap. They filled their pastry bags and swirled on the meringue. Sally beamed at Danny and said that everyone should cook with a friend. "It's so much more fun." Danny dusted the cake all over with powdered sugar and then reached under the counter and pulled out a blowtorch. Sally looked at it and said, "Huh," then pulled out a blowtorch twice the size and grinned at Danny.
"Yours is kind of small. Can it do the job?"
"We'll see," he said and together they torched the dessert.”
― Nancy Verde Barr, Last Bite

“Her dish's secret ingredient is an impromptu Greek yogurt. It's a unique type of yogurt that's thickened and concentrated via a straining process."
Strained yogurt?
Straining yogurt with a cheesecloth, or even paper towels, removes some of its moisture, condensing the yogurt while giving its flavor a gentle body, reminiscent of cheese. Miss Nakiri mixed some strained yogurt into the meringue she used for her batter. That gave her pancakes a deeper, more complex flavor that, in turn, made the simple sweetness of her brown sugar bean paste stand out even more!”
― Yuto Tsukuda, 食戟のソーマ 29 [Shokugeki no Souma 29]

“The pastry came first. If cooks had their mother sauces, pastry chefs had their mother doughs, and pâte à choux was the grand dame among them. It was one of the first things she'd learned to make and still one of her favorites. There was magic in the way the dough went together, butter and flour and salt, cooked until the raw flavor of the flour disappeared, but not so much that it went dry and crumbly. Then four or five eggs got added one at a time until it transformed into a thick batter. It was traditional to beat it by hand, but Melody had learned long ago she got more consistent results with far less effort by using a stand mixer. Then she spooned the batter into a piping bag fitted with star tip and piped long, uniform lines of dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.
As soon as those went into the oven, she began to concoct her flavors. A maple-and-vanilla crème that would be topped with a maple glaze and bacon bits. A lemon curd topped with toasted meringue, the filling for which was already prepared and jarred in her fridge from her lemon bar experiment earlier that week. A cardamom-scented custard paired with a brûléed sugar glaze.”
― Carla Laureano, Brunch at Bittersweet Café

“I carefully split one of the eggs and put the white into one bowl, the yolk into another. The bright orange yolk would become mayonnaise, and the white would make meringues that we'd top with whipped cream, raspberries, and roasted rhubarb.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn