Dear Collette

I am sorry to hear of your meringue angst!

Using egg whites that are older rather than as fresh as possible works best for all types of meringue (obviously, still within a sensible use by date).

Only ever use a glass, china or metal bowl and ensure that both it and the whisk(s) that you are using are scrupulously clean and absolutely grease free. If in any doubt, wash up by hand with hot soapy water and then rinse well with hot and then cold water, leave to drain and take a fresh tea towel so you know that that is laundry clean. I often save make meringues and Pavlovas for the moment when I am unloading the dishwasher and I therefore know that the stainless steel bowl and the balloon whisk from my KitchenAid stand mixer is squeaky clean. Plastic mixing bowls are the worst, once they have had fat of any kind in it you will never remove very trace. So a Kenwood chef with a plastic bowl (very popular in the 1980’s) is a recipe for disaster.

Carefully separate the whites, ensuring that absolutely no yolk contaminates them (they would introduce the dreaded grease).

I favour 2 oz (55g) of caster sugar per egg white, and would always use cane sugar (Tate3 & Lyle) in preference to home grown beet sugar (such as Silver Spoon).

Whisk the egg whites until like clouds then, with the mixer running at full speed, add the sugar slowly, a teaspoon at a time. Adding the sugar too early and to quickly are the main reasons for getting a poor volume. When it is all incorporated, turn off the machine and take a small amount of the mixture between two clean fingers and rub. If it feels at all gritty, whisk for longer, stopping and testing after each minute.

The volume of air you manage to whisk into the whites is what will make the mixture rise: as they are slowly heated up, all those small bubbles swell just like balloons deflate if blown up in a warm room and then hung in a cool room, just the process is the other way around.

Dry low down on a grid shelf on the floor of your coolest oven, so the Warming Oven if you have one or on a grid shelf on the floor of the Simmering Oven. If you have a manually controlled oven vent fan, make sure it is turned on for the period you are drying them out – usually somewhere between 1½ - 2½ hours.

I hope that helps.

Let me know how you get on.

Best wishes


Richard Maggs
The AGA Cookery Doctor