I made SMBC the first time today and really love the texture, except......

I have these tiny little hard-ish, gelatinous-ish pellets in the icing. Not like a mouthful or anything, but 1 or two in almost every fingerful of a sample. It kind of reminds me of a tapioca bead, but not perfectly round like that, more asymmetrical. What would cause this? Did I 'scramble' my egg whites w/the sugar? If so, how would I prevent this from happening again, since I couldn't tell until I tasted it, after adding all that costly butter and flavoring!! ARRRGH! Such a shame because otherwise it's really great. Could I save the icing by pushing it through strainer to get them out?

Yes. Scrambled, I think. Happened to a SMBC someone else did once for me and it was blue and the pellets showed in white; they wouldn't even take color.

I make IMBC lately, so I wouldn't know how to help.

I know FromScratchSF put a tutorial in her blog. This is the link. Maybe she'll come back help later.

http://fromscratchsf.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/tutorial-swiss-meringue-buttercream/

You started to make scrambled eggs. Take it off the heat at 160 degrees. I actually take mine off at 155 - 158 because it will continue to carry over cook for a little bit afterwards.