How do you make good meringue for lemon meringue pie?

Question

I can't seem to get my meringue to stay high after baking. I wonder if I am doing something wrong. Tastes good, just isn't very impressive looking.

Answer 1

The Basics
Use a clean, dry bowl. The bowl must be grease free, because any amount of fat will wreck a meringue. Glass, ceramic, stainless steel, and copper bowls are all suitable. Plastic bowls may appear clean, but may still have trace amounts of oil; do not use them. Cold eggs separate easily, but eggs whip to a higher volume when at room temperature. The solution is to separate the cold eggs, and then set them aside for 10 or 15 minutes. Separate each egg into two small bowls, one for the white and one for the yolk, and then add the white portion to the larger bowl. This allows you to reserve any with broken yolks for another purpose. Even a small amount of yolk can deflate the egg whites, so be careful.

Ingredients and Method
Many people have great success using cream of tartar, white vinegar, or lemon juice to stabilize the meringue. Add 1/8 teaspoon of one of these per egg white to the unbeaten eggs. If you are using a copper bowl to whip the egg whites in the addition of the cream of tartar is not necessary. Whip to medium soft peaks. Beat in 2 tablespoons white sugar per egg white. Continue to beat until egg whites are glossy and hold a firm peak. A never fail method for producing the perfect meringue is one that uses a cornstarch and water mixture. Stir together, and heat to form a gel. Beat gradually into the meringue. This is an excellent way to avoid shrinking problems. The Never-Ever-Fail Meringue recipe is an example of this technique.

Spread meringue over piping hot filling, and spread to the edges to seal. Hot filling is necessary to insure that the inside of the meringue cooks, preventing weeping. Hint: fine cake crumbs sprinkled lightly over the filling will absorb liquid between the layers, another preventative against weeping. The preferred baking method is one that combines high temperatures with a short baking time. This prevents overcooking the outside, and thus beading is avoided. Bake at 425 degrees F (220 degrees C) for 4 to 5 minutes.

Safety
When cooking with eggs, safety is always a concern. There are several ways to insure that your meringue is safe. One is baking at a moderate temperature, 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), for a longer period, 10 minutes. Alternatively, you can try heating the unbeaten egg whites, gently combined with the other meringue ingredients, in a hot water bath to 160 degrees F (70 degrees C). You will need to measure the temperature at frequent intervals to avoid ending up with very sweet scrambled eggs. Remember to wash the thermometer between each measurement; a dirty thermometer will contaminate your sterilized mixture. Beat to stiff peaks. These eggs will probably require a longer beating time to achieve the best volume possible.

Answer 2

Put your mixing bowl and beaters in the refrigerator to get them cold. Don't get any of the yellow of the egg in the meringue and do keep the eggs in the fridge until you are ready to beat them. Make sure you test the meringue to ensure that it is stiff before you spread it on your pie. Good luck, practice makes perfect.

Answer 3

I saw a program a couple weeks ago on the food network. Emeril made several kinds of meringue for different applications. All of the looked so good! The food network has several recipies at this link...

http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/searchResults?searchString=lemon+meringue&site=food&searchType=Recipe

Answer 4

I find it works best on a dry day, wet humid days suck for making meringue.

Answer 5

egg whites, cream of tartar and sugar. start the eggs add the cream of tartar 1/4 of teaspoon. keep whipping add the sugar whip to stiff peaks. As soon as you see a peak that doesnt' fall over it is done. You are probably whipping the egg whites too long.

Answer 6

We were told at Catering college, that everything must be spotless when using egg whiles, nothing, but nothing, must be introduced into the mixture except air.

Answer 7

you take about 3 egg whites and mix it with a little lemon jucie and a little sugar . and it takes a while to beat it but it is soo good .

Answer 8

are you mixing for long enough???? this could be the prob