December 19, 2023 - 3:22pm
Lemon meringue pie
Hello
it has been a while since I have been on here. I have been doing meringue for pies and it has thrown me for a loop. I have never done meringues before.
I am making lemon meringue pie and I am using the Italian method. I would like to know if there’s anything else I can do to make the meringue firmer? I also seem to get a white creamy texture between the meringue and the pie. What can I do to prevent that?
Robert
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Sorry, I can't help you, but you got me researching meringue and I came across Swiss meringue buttercream, for which I suspect I'm going to be forever grateful.
I saw a couple recipes for Italian meringue that had cornstarch for more stability, but all the recipes are pretty basic and similar.. Are you baking the meringue at all to give it colour, and/or do you add the meringue to the pie when the pie is hot, warm or cold? Have you tried Swiss meringue? That has no added water like the Italian, so might proudce a slightly firmer meringue.
Hope you solve your problem.
I have used the cornstarch slurry. It didn’t help much. I do cook the meringue for color.
I top the pies when warm. The Swiss meringue is between French and Italian meringue on firmness. The Italian is the firmest. I will keep plugging away. Thank you for the response. Have a merry Christmas
You might want to look into a modified cornstarch like Instant ClearGel or regular ClearGel. The former works great for stabilizing whipped cream products while the latter thickens and stabilizes baked products like fruit pies and sauces. I’ve not seen them applied to meringue so you’ll need to do that homework yourself.
I will check out the instant and the regular clear gel. They seem interesting. Thank you for the input and have a Merry Christmas.
A quick search I just did failed to identify any use of clear gel, per se, in meringues. There are a couple of sites that used a cooked cornstarch slurry to tighten it up, prevent weeping, and increase the life of the product. Maybe (cooked) clear gel would work in that application but it would be very easy and inexpensive to experiment with regular cornstarch first. Good luck!
Merry Christmas to you as well.
Italian meringue is robust in my experience. Egg whites and cooked sugar. Whip until stiff peaks.
Be sure the bowl and whisk are clean and free of fat. Be sure the whites are free of traces of yolk.
Try lowering the oven temp and baking the topped pie for a longer time.
I am not a fan of starch thickeners when an alternative exists (no thickener). Gels are tricky to use (agar for example) because they can be difficult to mix, set to a hard consistency if overused, and to my knowledge are best used in cold/chilled items.