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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nIf you\u2019ve never made meringue, it\u2019s egg whites, sugar, a little cream of tartar, and lots of air. Sounds simple. But I remember overhearing my mother\u2019s friends discussing how hard it was to keep it from burning or weeping or turning out chewy instead of light and fluffy. Then they\u2019d share tips\u2026in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It sounds quaint now to share domestic tips in person, doesn\u2019t it? How could your friends possibly know better than Google? Apparently, my grandmother\u2019s friends did. Hers was perfect \u2013 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!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In general, the tips people follow from the internet are good tips:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But if you\u2019re reading tips and the tipster says you must have an electric mixer with a metal bowl, you could come away believing that you can\u2019t make good meringue without those items. Don\u2019t let that deter you and don\u2019t rush out to buy something you don\u2019t want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s what I use. It\u2019s powered by nothing more than my hand turning a crank and it works just fine for creating stiff, glossy peaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I don\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve had difficulty making souffles, don\u2019t worry. The sugar in meringue helps stabilize the peaks so this should be easier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you look at photos of pie on the internet, you\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under and overcooking may cause the dreaded weeping my mom\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My grandmother\u2019s friends must have known all these secrets because her meringue was perfect \u2013 light and airy with swirly brown peaks. And lucky for me, she made my birthday pie with that perfect meringue on top. Yum!<\/p>\n\n\n I\u2019m 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 … Continue reading “Meringue”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3616,3613,3617,795,3615,3614,3612],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5541"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5541"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5545,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5541\/revisions\/5545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cooking2thrive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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