Locator: 50777MERINGUE.
This entry is for a certain reader, who I am told, reads the blog religiously. I did not know that, or course.
I know she is a recent college graduate but not much more than that. It does not matter. I simply wanted to post something that she might enjoy, now that I know she reads the blog every day.
Somehow "meringue" came up in our discussion earlier today about desserts while celebrating "Mother's Day." Our oldest granddaughter was part of the discussion. We always joke that she knows something about everything.
I knew meringue was egg whites and sugar, but our oldest granddaughter reminded us that meringue generally includes cream of tartar. I didn't know why cream of tartar was used but later I asked:
Query: What is important about an "acidic" agreement when mixing egg white and sugar to prepare meringue?
Reply:
I was well aware of cream of tartar and its use in cooking but never asked why until now.
And, then as she usually does, our granddaughter casually mentioned / asked / suggested that cream of tartar was a by-product of wine-making. I had never heard that, but I was curious and the two of us looked it up, and yes, indeed, she was correct:
So, there you have it: the source of cream of tartar, why it's important, how it works, and perhaps the most common reason cooks use it.
Never in a million years would I have guessed it is related to wine-making but granddaughter did. How she knows all this stuff, I have no idea, but it really does seem that she knows at least something about everything.
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The Book Page
The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, Edited With An Introduction By Elizabeth D. Samet, c. 2019.
I've read his Memoirs twice, and maybe parts of his Memoirs several times. I doubt I will ever read the complete annotated volume edited by Elizabeth D Samet, and I won't read it from start to finish, but will read the parts I want to read when I want to read them and in the order I want to read them.
Tonight, of course, I'm reading her introduction. Absolutely fascinating.
A list of the authors US Grant and his fellow students read when they were at the US Military Academy (West Point):
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton: eclectic, versatile
- James Fenimore Cooper
- Frederick Marryat: seafaring novels
- Walter Scott
- Washington Irving, a local celebrity living near West Point in the Hudson Valley
- Charles James Lever
The editor's information on Sir Walter Scott and his (Walter Scott's) connection to the US Civil War is an incredible piece of sleuthing and/or observation.
