Meringue selber backen in Meiringen

The Meringue

Everybody knows the little sweet and white dream of egg-whites and sugar called Meringue.

Researchers into the fine art of pastry baking at a Museum in Frankfurt am Main discovered the origins of the meringue in the 1930s. According to the documentation (which was unfortunately later destroyed in the second World War) it is a fact that the „meringue“ was created for the first time in about 1600 in Meiringen by Gasparini, a pastry chef. He himself named his creation after the town in which he was employed, that is „Meiringen“.

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From then on a light, airy shell made from egg whites was known as a „Meiring“ or, in the plural, as meringues. Since this new pastry creation soon found its way into Austria and Southern Germany, the new names of „Meirinken and „Merinken“ appeared in the local dialects. In Northern Germany, the noble phrase „Spanish Wind“ was later devised. The meringue began a triumphal March across Europe and even reached England where Queen Elisabeth I christened it a „Kiss“. In France, the original name was changes to „Meringue“ to suit the French tongue. Gasparini’s sweet, pastry creation was celebrated as a real triumph in the French courts. The meringue was served to King Stanislaus Leszczynski at his residence in Nancy.

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