possible consistency is obtained by first beating the whites to a firm foam and then gently folding in the sugar with a spatula The sugar dissolves into the existing bubble walls and adds both bulk and cohesiveness to them The added bulk gives the bubbles more room to slide past each other and creates a soft, frothy consistency suitable for a spread pie topping or for folding into a mousse or chiffon mix, but too fragile to shape A creamier, firmer consistency results when the sugar is not merely folded in, but beaten in In this case, the sugar’s added bulk is spread out as the beating further subdivides the bubbles, and the cohesiveness of the sugar-water mixture noticeably tightens the foam’s texture The longer you beat the egg-sugar mixture, the stiffer it will get and the more finely it can be shaped These standard methods take only a few minutes but require the cook’s attention Some professionals, particularly in France, make firm meringues suitable for the pastry pipe on the kitchen equivalent of autopilot They place all the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, add a portion of the egg whites with some lemon juice to prevent graining, mix for several minutes — the timing is not critical — then add more whites, mix a while, and so on The result is a fine-textured, stiff, supple meringue Beating the eggs gradually into the sugar rather than the other way around does slow the foaming, but requires little supervision Such “automatic” meringues are denser than usual and less brittle when dried down Food Words: Meringue Thanks to the Larousse Gastronomique, it’s widely believed that the meringue was invented by a pastry chef in the Swiss town of Mieringen around 1720, and brought to France a couple of decades later by the Polish father-in-law of Louis XV Sounds ...make firm meringues suitable for the pastry pipe on the kitchen equivalent of autopilot They place all the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, add a portion of the egg whites with some lemon juice to prevent graining, mix for... several minutes — the timing is not critical — then add more whites, mix a while, and so on The result is a fine-textured, stiff, supple meringue Beating the eggs gradually into the sugar rather than the other way around does... it’s widely believed that the meringue was invented by a pastry chef in the Swiss town of Mieringen around 1720, and brought to France a couple of decades later by the Polish father-in-law of Louis XV Sounds