Working toward a more stable meringue made from the liquid in a can of chickpeas.
Aquafaba, or the liquid that’s in a can of beans, is one of the most exciting cooking “discoveries” in recent memory. Not only was it found to be a superior vegan substitute for eggs than what had been commercially available; it was found by curious home cooks across the globe, experimenting in their kitchens to find something that could approximate the way egg whites behave in delicate desserts like meringues.
Aside from its wide availability and the fact that it’s very affordable, I like the idea of working with aquafaba because it’s a way to use up something that in many cases would otherwise be poured down the sink. However, in experimenting with aquafaba as an egg substitute, I’ve found that it sometimes works beautifully, as in Kenji’s aquafaba-based pancakes, but it sometimes doesn’t, like the time I tried to substituted it for eggs to make brownies. I decided to take a deeper look at aquafaba and see how it behaved under different conditions, and in the process try to come up with a good aquafaba meringue recipe.
