What is the difference between French, Swiss and Italian meringue?

All three are egg white foam held up by sugar. What differs is when and how the sugar arrives, and that decides how tough the resulting foam is, how long it holds, and whether it has been heated enough to count as cooked. Choose by what the meringue has to survive.

Step by step

1. Choose by what happens next.Baked afterwards? French is fine and simplest. Piped and sitting on something? Swiss. Not cooked again at all, or has to survive a buffet? Italian.
2. For French, add the sugar slowly after soft peaks.Whisk the whites to a soft peak first, then add caster sugar a spoonful at a time. Adding it at the start weighs the foam down before it has built volume. Keep going until a pinch feels smooth, not gritty.
3. For Swiss, dissolve before you whisk.Whites and sugar together in a heatproof bowl over — not touching — barely simmering water. Whisk gently and continuously until the mixture reaches about 65°C and no sugar can be felt. Then take it off and whisk hard until stiff and cooled to room temperature.
4. For Italian, get the syrup right and the timing right.Sugar and a little water boiled without stirring to 118 to 121°C — a sugar thermometer is not optional here. Have the whites at soft peak as the syrup arrives, then pour it in a thin steady stream down the side of the bowl, avoiding the moving whisk, and keep whisking until the bowl is cool to the touch.
5. Judge stability by how it holds a peak.French flops within minutes. Swiss holds a defined peak and pipes cleanly. Italian holds a sharp point and is still holding it several hours later. That progression is the whole reason three versions exist.
6. Match the meringue to the buttercream.Swiss and Italian meringue buttercreams are both silky and far less sweet than icing-sugar buttercream. Swiss is easier; Italian is more stable in warm weather. French meringue cannot be made into buttercream at all.

Tips

• Italian meringue is the practical answer for anything with raw meringue on top that will not be baked, because the syrup takes the whites past the point where any pathogen survives.
• Do not let a sugar syrup crystallise. Brush the pan sides down with a wet pastry brush and do not stir it once it is boiling.
• A stand mixer makes Italian meringue far safer — pouring hot syrup with one hand while whisking with the other is how people get burnt.
• Swiss meringue that will not stiffen is usually still warm. Keep whisking; it firms as it cools.
• All three are ruined by the same thing: fat. Spotless bowl, no trace of yolk, no plastic.

Common mistakes

• Using French meringue for a topping that will not be baked — It is raw whites with sugar in and it collapses and weeps within the hour. Use Italian, or bake it.
• Pouring hot syrup onto the moving whisk — It flings sugar at 118°C around the bowl and onto you, and most of it sets in threads on the whisk instead of going into the meringue. Pour down the side of the bowl.
• Overheating a Swiss meringue — Above about 70°C the whites begin to set and you get scrambled specks that never whisk out. Stir continuously and check the temperature rather than guessing.

Alternatives

• French meringue: Caster sugar whisked gradually into raw whites. Quickest, lightest, least stable. It must be baked or cooked in some way, so it is the meringue for pavlovas, meringue nests, macarons and folding into cake batters. It collapses if it sits.
• Swiss meringue: Whites and sugar warmed together over a bain-marie to around 65°C, stirring until the sugar has completely dissolved, then whisked to stiff peaks as it cools. Dense, glossy, very smooth. The default for Swiss meringue buttercream and for piping that has to hold shape.
• Italian meringue: Sugar syrup boiled to around 118 to 121°C and poured in a thin stream into whites already whisking. The hot syrup cooks the whites as it goes in. The most stable of the three, holds for hours, and is what goes on lemon meringue pie, baked Alaska and mousses that are not cooked further.

Questions people ask