I’m sitting here looking at my lemon tree thinking of lemon meringue pie. I rarely eat it, but I LOVE it. Growing up, it was what I asked for every birthday instead of cake.
The bright lemon filling looks like light to me. It tastes bright and happy and makes me smile. If the meringue were missing, I’d still eat the pie, but it would be missing that little somethin, somethin that makes it extra special.
If you’ve never made meringue, it’s egg whites, sugar, a little cream of tartar, and lots of air. Sounds simple. But I remember overhearing my mother’s friends discussing how hard it was to keep it from burning or weeping or turning out chewy instead of light and fluffy. Then they’d share tips…in person.
It sounds quaint now to share domestic tips in person, doesn’t it? How could your friends possibly know better than Google? Apparently, my grandmother’s friends did. Hers was perfect – light and airy with swirly tan peaks. And she was the person who made my birthday meal, so I was always in for a treat!
In general, the tips people follow from the internet are good tips:
- Separate the eggs whites from the yolks while the eggs are cold.
- Separate each egg in a secondary bowl so that accidental contamination with a piece of yolk is limited to that egg and not the other bowl.
- Allow egg whites to come to room temperature for as long as an hour before beating.
- Make sure your bowl and beaters are clean and dry.
But if you’re reading tips and the tipster says you must have an electric mixer with a metal bowl, you could come away believing that you can’t make good meringue without those items. Don’t let that deter you and don’t rush out to buy something you don’t want.
You do not have to have a metal bowl. Glass works just fine. And you can use a hand mixer or a crank-powered egg beater. In fact, that’s what I use. It’s powered by nothing more than my hand turning a crank and it works just fine for creating stiff, glossy peaks.
Egg whites will support their own weight in sugar without your meringue going flat, but you must add the sugar slowly. You could see instructions that say to leave the mixer on and add half the sugar, then fold in the other half with a spatula. That may work if you have a stand mixer.
I don’t do that. I add the sugar more slowly and beat between additions. Once you have stiff peaks that do not collapse, stop. It is possible to beat for too long which will cause the meringue to fall.
If you’ve had difficulty making souffles, don’t worry. The sugar in meringue helps stabilize the peaks so this should be easier.
When you look at photos of pie on the internet, you’ll see some with meringue that sits 3 times higher than the pie filling. Proportionately, I prefer less meringue than that. I like for each bite of pie to include crust, filling, and meringue.
Under and overcooking may cause the dreaded weeping my mom’s friends hoped to avoid. Paying careful attention to time and temp will help prevent it. You can also put a little cornstarch in the recipe for an added measure of prevention.
My grandmother’s friends must have known all these secrets because her meringue was perfect – light and airy with swirly brown peaks. And lucky for me, she made my birthday pie with that perfect meringue on top. Yum!
