Îles flottantes vs. oeufs à la neige
Long ago, I ate at someone's house and was served pieces of meringue on chilled crème anglaise.* The hostess called it îles flottantes, but I have since heard it called oeufs à la neige. Meanwhile, I've seen île flottante used to refer to a single meringue atop crème anglaise. So are these same dish, except for the size of the meringue? Are the two terms interchangeable? Or are there other differences?
*I didn't know at the time that that's what it was, because I was a kid; I've learned it since.
Best Answer
The short answer appears to be: îles flottantes and oeufs à la neige are two different names for one dish.
First of all, you can find some recipes, in English and in French, using the names interchangeably:
"Floating Islands (Oeufs a la Neige)", Saveur
"Recette de Ile flottante, le classique...POUR LES OEUFS EN NEIGE", L'Atelier des Chef
So clearly, to some people, they are the same thing.
However, in reading through recipes I noticed something that may suggest some difference: in recipes for oeufs à la neige, the meringues always seem to be poached in hot milk (BBC, New York Times, Le Journal des Femmes, L'atelier des Chefs), while îles flottantes meringues are sometimes poached (Saveur, BBC, New York Times), and sometimes baked (Food Network, L'atelier des Chefs). Those poached meringues are supposed to be made into an egg shape (thus, "oeufs") - although more often the egg-shape is only hinted at (e.g. "oval-shaped" rather than "ovum-shaped"), but the baked meringues are generally not formed into any particular shape (unless a dollop is a shape).
I don't think this difference is that significant. Mostly because it's only occasionally a difference. It's possible that one dish was originally poached and one baked, but it seems to me that these baked meringues could probably be classified as "not totally traditional."
Pictures about "Îles flottantes vs. oeufs à la neige"
Quelle différence entre Å?uf à la neige et île flottante ?
dans l'\xeele flottante, ils sont cuits dans un moule, au four et au bain-marie ; dans les \u0153ufs \xe0 la neige, ils sont moul\xe9s \xe0 la cuill\xe8re et poch\xe9s dans du lait fr\xe9missant (voire de l'eau, mais le r\xe9sultat est moins moelleux).Pourquoi les blancs en neige retombent à la cuisson ?
L'eau de l'\u0153uf reste pi\xe9g\xe9e entre l'air et les prot\xe9ines. Mais cette action n'est pas d\xe9finitive, au bout d'un moment les filament rel\xe2chent les bulles d'air, et l'eau retombe au fond du bol. Normalement il suffit de les battre \xe0 nouveau, pour remonter les blancs.Comment a été découvert le blanc en neige ?
Question d'origine : Ce serait dans un trait\xe9 culinaire datant du VI e si\xe8cle que l'on trouve la premi\xe8re recette de blancs en neige : " Il semble que d\xe8s le VIe si\xe8cle, le m\xe9decin byzantin Anthime d\xe9couvrit le principe de la \xab neige \xbb, obtenue en battant des blancs d'\u0153ufs.Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Roberto Nickson, Roberto Nickson, Paul Deetman, Thibault Trillet