peak stage, the foam is even firmer, takes on a dull, dry appearance and crumbly consistency, and begins to leak some liquid, so that it slips away from the bowl again At this “slip-andstreak” stage, as pastry chef Bruce Healy describes it, the protein webs in adjacent bubble walls are bonding to each other and squeezing out what little liquid once separated them Pastry makers look for this stage to give them the firmest foam for a meringue or cookie batter; they stop the incipient overcoagulation and weeping by immediately adding sugar, which separates the proteins and absorbs the water They also start the beating with about half the cream of tartar per egg that a cake or soufflé maker will, so that the foam will in fact progress to this somewhat overwhipped condition Past the slip-andstreak stage, the foam begins to lose volume and get grainy Egg foams can be used on their own or as the aerating ingredient in a variety of complicated mixtures Meringues: Sweet Foams on Their Own Though they’re sometimes folded into cake or cookie batters or fillings, meringues — sweetened egg foams — generally stand by themselves as a discrete element in a dish: as a frothy topping, for example, or a creamy icing, or a hard edible container, or melt-inthe-mouth decoration A meringue foam must therefore be stiff and stable enough to hold its shape The cook obtains both stiffness and stability by the addition of sugar and/or of heat Meringues are often baked very slowly in a low oven (200ºF/93ºC) to dry them out into a brittle, pristinely white morsel or container (The door of electric ovens should be left slightly ajar to allow the meringue’s moisture to escape; gas ovens are already vented.) When quickly browned in a hot oven ... icing, or a hard edible container, or melt-inthe-mouth decoration A meringue foam must therefore be stiff and stable enough to hold its shape The cook obtains both stiffness and stability by the addition of sugar and/ or of. .. stability by the addition of sugar and/ or of heat Meringues are often baked very slowly in a low oven (2 00ºF/93ºC) to dry them out into a brittle, pristinely white morsel or container (The door of electric ovens should...complicated mixtures Meringues: Sweet Foams on Their Own Though they’re sometimes folded into cake or cookie batters or fillings, meringues — sweetened egg foams — generally stand by themselves as a discrete element in a dish: as