Angel's Food

History

"Angel's Food" is recorded in Martha McCulloch-Williams's "Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" (1913). The whites of eleven eggs are beaten to a stiff froth with a pinch of salt; a cup and a half of powdered sugar is mixed in gradually, then a cup of flour sifted twice with a teaspoonful of cream of tartar. Mixed smooth with the strained juice of half a lemon, it is poured into "a smooth, ungreased pan" and baked in a moderate oven.

The ungreased pan is not an oversight — a cake raised on nothing but beaten egg white needs to climb the sides of the tin, and grease would defeat it. The book's general cake instructions make the same point about handling: flour should be sifted "four to five times for very light things, sponge cake, angel's food," and the mixing bowl "freshly scalded and wiped very dry," because "a damp bowl clogs with either sugar or flour."

The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this particular recipe.

McCulloch-Williams was a white writer born near Clarksville, Tennessee, who grew up on a plantation before the Civil War; the book's dedication is "to our Mammys," and much of the cooking it records is the work of enslaved and formerly enslaved Black women it does not name.

Ingredients

• 11 whole eggs
• pinch salt
• 1.5 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 0.5 whole lemon

Instructions

1. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff froth forms. Gradually mix in the powdered sugar. Add the flour that has been sifted twice with the cream of tartar, mixing until smooth. Stir in the strained lemon juice. Pour into a smooth, ungreased pan.
2. Bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. Remove from oven and turn the pan upside down on a cloth. Let stand until the cake falls out on its own.