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Meringue
3 egg whites 6 level T powdered sugar Beat eggs and add powdered sugar slowly and beat until stiff. Place on pie and brown very slowly.
Mrs. A. L. Johnson.
A bare-bones soft meringue of the kind that turns a plain custard or lemon filling into a company dessert. Three details in the original need translating: the sugar, the beating order, and what "brown very slowly" means in degrees.
- The measure"6 level T" is six level tablespoons, so two tablespoons of sugar per egg white. That is close to the usual modern proportion for a soft pie meringue; roughly double that per white is the range used for stiff, hard meringues. Expect a tender, quickly-cut topping rather than a marshmallowy one.
- What "powdered sugar" meantIn older American recipes "powdered sugar" often meant sugar pulverized finer than granulated rather than the cornstarch-laced confectioners' sugar sold today, though usage varied and by the early twentieth century the term was applied to confectioners' sugar as well. Superfine or caster sugar is a safe match; modern confectioners' sugar will also work, with a slightly softer set.
- Beat first, then sugarThe instruction to add sugar slowly matters. Whip the whites to soft peaks before any sugar goes in, then rain it in a spoonful at a time so it dissolves; sugar added at the start delays foaming, and sugar dumped in at the end leaves gritty pockets that weep syrup later.
- "Brown very slowly"Around 300-325F for 20 to 25 minutes, until the peaks are evenly tan. The slow oven is deliberate: it sets the foam through to the middle instead of scorching the tips while the interior stays raw and later collapses.
- Spread onto hot fillingPut the meringue on while the pie filling is still hot and push it right out to the crust all the way around. A cold filling under a warm topping is the usual cause of the watery layer that appears at the base, and a meringue that does not touch the crust shrinks away from the rim as it bakes.
- Egg safety in a soft meringueA slow-baked soft meringue may never reach 160F through its full depth. If you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immunocompromised, use pasteurized whites or a cooked (Swiss or Italian) meringue instead.
- YieldThree whites cover one 8- or 9-inch pie in a modest layer. For tall, showy peaks, use four or five whites and scale the sugar at two tablespoons each.
- A pinch of insuranceThe original calls for nothing but whites and sugar. An eighth teaspoon of cream of tartar, or a few drops of lemon juice, added before the sugar will make the foam noticeably harder to overbeat and less inclined to bead.
Pie fillings like lemon and coconut cream use yolks, leaving whites over; sweetened, beaten and browned on top of the same pie, they wasted nothing, and the technique was made easier once wire whisks and later rotary egg beaters made whipping whites a matter of minutes rather than an arm-numbing chore with a fork or a bundle of twigs. The name is French and its origins are murky; it is often traced to the Swiss town of Meiringen, though that story is traditional rather than documented. Recipes in these volumes were collected from the congregation and printed under each contributor's married name. Mrs. Johnson was writing for women who already knew what a meringue looked like and needed only her proportions.