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Eton Mess
Strawberries, cream and crushed meringue — the gloriously chaotic pudding of the Eton–Harrow cricket match, at its absolute best in high summer.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 0 min
- Total
- 20 min
- Yield
- Serves 6
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Era
- Victorian
Ingredients
- 500g strawberries, hulled and halved
- 1 tbsp icing sugar; squeeze of lemon
- 600ml double cream; 1 tsp vanilla
- 8 ready-made meringue nests (or 100g meringue)
- A few extra strawberries and mint, to finish
Method
- Macerate half the strawberries with the sugar and lemon for 15 minutes, then crush roughly into a sauce.
- Whip the cream with the vanilla to soft peaks.
- Break the meringue into large, craggy pieces.
- Fold the meringue, remaining strawberries and most of the sauce through the cream — marble, don’t mix.
- Pile into glasses, ripple with the last of the sauce, and serve within the hour while the meringue still crackles.
Oven temperatures are given in Celsius, Fahrenheit, fan and gas mark throughout. Quantities are metric, as cooked and written in the UK.