Home › Pastry Desserts › Meringue II (Whites eggs teaspoon lemon) (II)
Meringue II (Whites eggs teaspoon lemon) (II)
Whites 3 eggs 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract or 1/3 teaspoon vanilla 7 1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar Beat whites until stiff, add four tablespoons sugar gradually, and beat vigorously; fold in remaining sugar, and add flavoring. Cook eight minutes in a slow oven.
A soft meringue meant to be spread over a baked pie or pudding and set in the oven, not a crisp dried meringue shell. The proportions are unusually lean on sugar, which affects how it behaves.
- The hinge: sugar goes in slowlyAdd the first four tablespoons a spoonful at a time while beating, so each dissolves before the next goes in. Undissolved sugar is what makes a finished meringue bead and weep amber droplets.
- "Slow oven"Conventionally around 250 to 325F, so call it about 300F. At that temperature eight minutes is likely only to set and lightly colour the surface; a tinted, dry-topped meringue may want longer.
- 7 1/2 tablespoonsHalf a cup less half a tablespoon, about 55 g of powdered sugar. That is under 20 g per egg white, appreciably less than the roughly 25 g per white a modern soft meringue uses, so this one is lean and less stable.
- Powdered sugarPeriod powdered sugar was generally ground from loaf sugar, without added starch; today's confectioners' sugar carries roughly 3 percent cornstarch. That is no disaster in a topping, but it can leave a faint chalkiness if the meringue is underbaked.
- Add acid for insuranceWith so little sugar the foam collapses easily. An eighth teaspoon of cream of tartar beaten in with the whites, though not in the original, holds the volume through folding and baking.
- Flavouring lastExtracts are alcohol-based and thin the foam, so fold them in at the very end with a light hand. Lemon extract is not lemon juice and should not be substituted with it.
- Spread onto a warm fillingSeal the meringue right to the crust edge all the way round, which helps stop it shrinking back from the rim as it bakes.
- YieldEnough to cover a single 8- or 9-inch pie in a modest layer. For a tall, showy top, make one and a half times the quantity.
Soft meringue toppings spread over custard and lemon pies became a fixture of American home baking in the second half of the nineteenth century, by which time wire whisks and rotary egg beaters had made a stiff white foam far quicker work than by hand alone. Numbered meringues appear in a number of cookbooks of the period -- one for pies, one dropped and dried into shells, one folded into a pudding -- which is the likely reason this appears simply as "Meringue II." Custards and cream fillings used yolks, and the leftover whites had to go somewhere.