Meringue

Meringue, a mixture of stiffly beaten egg whites and sugar used in confectionery and desserts. The invention of meringue in 1720 is attributed to a Swiss pastry chef named Gasparini.

French Meringue

French meringue involves beating the egg whites with some sort of stabilizer like cream of tartar, until frothy, and then adding the granulated sugar and continuing to beat until the meringue reaches stiff peaks.

• FRENCH METHOD - For french meringue macarons, the dry ingredients, almond flour and powdered sugar are mixed together with the meringue to make the dough. This merengue is considered the least stable of the three, although in reality, I think it's a matter of taste.

Italian Meringue

It requires making a water/sugar syrup and heating it to a certain temperature, soft ball stage (238ºF-240ºF), while beating the egg whites to soft peaks. Then, as soon as the syrup reaches this temperature you have to add it to the soft peaked whites, while the mixer is still running, and keep beating until the meringue reaches stiff peaks, which will also take a while, since now the meringue has to cool down long before reaching the peaks.

• ITALIAN METHOD (the one I like the least) - Basically, you should mix some of the egg whites with the powdered sugar and almond flour (tant pour tant), forming a paste, which will fold into the meringue.
• As you can see, this method is the most maintenance-intensive. It requires a caramel thermometer, and you need to do your best to achieve the soft peaks of the whites at the same time as you reach the temperature of the syrup, otherwise the syrup won't be at the perfect temperature if you need to continue whipping the whites, or the whites will no longer be in the soft peak stage if you need to continue heating the syrup. I don't consider it to be a method for beginners, it is in fact, the method used in the books of Piere Hermé and Ladurée, two of the most famous macaron houses in Paris and the world

Swiss Meringue

To make Swiss meringue, heat the egg whites and sugar over a double boiler (a pot with little boiling water with a bowl on top whose bottom does not touch the water), just until the sugar melts, which will take 1 or 2 minutes. And you don't need a thermometer for this, you just need to touch some of the syrup with your hands, and if you don't feel any sugar granules you're good to go. When the syrup is transferred to a blender and beaten until stiff peaks are reached.

• SWISS METHOD - The Swiss method is somewhere between the French and the Italian, as it makes a meringue more stable than the French method, but it doesn't require all the fussy things like the Italian does. For this method, the dry ingredients are folded with the stiff meringue.