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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.

crmdgn
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2 Answers2

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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."

Juhasz
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    And of course the same dish is called "bird's milk" in Hungarian. – Marti Jan 28 '19 at 18:17
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    Coincidentally, I just looked that up in a Hungarian cook book. My guess is that the bird in the name has something to do with the eggs in the dish. Or maybe the meringue is supposed to look like a bird's nest. @Marti do you know where that Hungarian name might have come from? – Juhasz Jan 28 '19 at 18:40
  • And, for what it's worth, the recipe I have for madártej involves poaching the meringue. – Juhasz Jan 28 '19 at 18:42
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    My best guess for the origin of *madártej* is that it's "eggs" floating in "milk", and eggs are clearly made by birds, so therefore the milk must be too. Or something. :) – Marti Jan 28 '19 at 18:48
  • And yes, all proper *madártej* recipes call for poaching the eggs in milk. (And then using that same milk to make the custard.) – Marti Jan 28 '19 at 18:51
  • The etymological dictionary says that *madártej* originally meant "a fantastically tasty food" -- something that doesn't exist in reality, any more than birds produce any milk. The construction has a parallel in the Latin *lacta gallinaceum*, which is literally "hen's milk", but was used as an expression meaning "fine food". – JPmiaou Jan 28 '19 at 21:36
  • Thanks @JPmiaou. That sent me down a fruitful path. "Hen's milk" goes even further back than the Latins, it seems. Aristophanes uses the phrase in *The Wasps* to denote something rare and valuable. The French also enjoy *lait de poule*, although it's unrelated to oeufs a la neige - it's eggnog. Hungary's northern neighbors eat *ptasie mleczko*, which is a either a candy or a cake. In Romania, *lapte de pasăre* is the good ol' îles flottantes again, and it's the same in Slovakian (*vtáčie mlieko*) so one of those countries took the idea for the name from the other. – Juhasz Jan 29 '19 at 01:02
  • @Juhasz, I would argue that the French usage of "hen's milk" is not unrelated: eggnog is just the custard from *madártej* with nutmeg and alcohol added. :-) – JPmiaou Jan 29 '19 at 17:33
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Wrong

Ils flottante is BAKED oeuf à la neige POACHED

dans l’île flottante, ils sont cuits dans un moule, au four et au bain-marie ; dans les œufs à la neige, ils sont moulés à la cuillère et pochés dans du lait frémissant (voire de l’eau, mais le résultat est moins moelleux).

user100209
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    This directly contradicts the previous answer that has sources - your claim would be better received if you could add reliable sources for your statement. – Stephie Jul 30 '22 at 14:12
  • Seasoned Advice is an English-only site; please writ your answer in English and fix the formatting so that it is more readable. Also, please do not respond directly to other answers in your answer. Your answer should be able to stand alone in response to the question (ie remove the "Wrong" at the top of the question) – Esther Jul 31 '22 at 04:38
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    A direct quote in French would be a good thing to support an answer in English. But it would need to be properly sourced to carry any weight – Chris H Jul 31 '22 at 14:39