A sweet blend of stiffly beaten egg whites and sugar, meringue dates back to the sixteenth century, when European cooks first realized that whisking egg whites with birch twigs (for the lack of a better utensil), created a light, frothy mixture. They used this method to make what they called “snow,” a whipped dish combining the beaten egg whites with cream.

It was eventually discovered that meringue hardens when baked at a low temperature (or simply left out in the air to dry), changing the texture to one that is pleasantly airy and crispy. In the seventeenth century this was often called “sugar puff,” which was sometimes flavored with caraway seeds, a tradition that continued to evolve with other flavorings, creating a large number of taste combinations.

"Kisses" were a popular nineteenth century confection featured in Eliza Leslie's Seventy-Five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats. In this recipe, the whites of four eggs were beaten until stiff, then a pound of powdered loaf sugar was added, one teaspoonful at a time, and finally twelve drops of lemon essence. To form the cookies, mounds of currant jelly were spaced an equal distance apart on a paper-lined baking tin and the egg white mixture spooned on top. They were then set in the bake oven at the end of the day (when it had cooled down), and considered done when a pale yellow color. The flat undersides of two cookies were attached and dried again in a cool oven until the bottoms were firmly stuck, creating a ball or oval shape.

The Meringues a la Crème served by James Parkinson as part of the "Pastry Course" at his seventeen- course Thousand Dollar Dinner in 1851 were perhaps a bit more elegant - tiny bite-sized baked meringues lightly flavored with vanilla and filled with cream or jelly. Rose meringues were tinted a delicate pink and flavored with rose water extract. 

To recreate this recipe, I consulted a cookbook written by prolific nineteenth century chef and restauranteur Jessup Whitehead called Cooking for Profit: A New American Cook Book Adapted for the use of all Who Serve Meals for a Price. (Meant for those in the restaurant and hotel industries, it was originally published in the San Francisco Daily Hotel Gazette.)

It is really quite a simple recipe, it just requires a kitchen that is not too humid and some time to dry bake the cookies at a low heat. I used my stand mixer and am giving directions accordingly. Here's my adapted version: