M aking a modest meringue (beating two or three egg whites with sugar)

is tricky enough. Double the amount of topping for a mile-high meringue and you’ve got double the problems. Weeping (the leaching of liquid from the meringue) was a sad reality in every recipe I tried.

I found that cream of tartar helped make the meringue more stable. But even with cream of tartar in my recipe, the meringue wept. Undercooking is the main problem—the pool-ing liquid is actually egg white reverting to its liquid form. For regular lemon meringue pies, the test kitchen has solved this problem by spreading the meringue over a piping-hot fi lling and baking the pie in a hot oven. The hot fi lling cooks the bottom half of the meringue,while the heat from the oven takes care of the top half.

But when I used this nor-mally reliable method with twice as much meringue, the topping disintegrated into a puddle as I sliced up the fi rst piece of pie. What went wrong? I realized that this method works only with a modest amount of meringue. Thecenter of my super-sized meringue wasn’t cooking through. Baking the pie longer was not an option—the top of the meringue burned. I needed to try something different.

Years ago, when I worked as a baker’s assistant, I learned about Italian meringue. Boil-ing-hot sugar syrup is poured into the egg whites as they are whipped. The hot syrup cooks the whites and helps transform them into a soft, smooth meringue that is stable enough to resist weeping. Best of all, this meringue is extra fl uffy and billowy. While I needed eight egg whites to achieve mile-high results with a regular meringue, four egg whites yielded plenty of Italian meringue. Doubling the meringue without doubling the whites is a neat trick.

There’s only one problem with an Italian meringue. Pro-fessional bakers use a candy thermometer to heat the sugar syrup to the correct tempera-ture (between 238 and 245 degrees), but many home cooks don’t have this tool. Could I make an Italian meringue without a thermometer? After much trial and error, I found that boiling the sugar syrup for exactly four minutes worked

perfectly every time—no matter which stove (or pan) in the test kitchen that I used.

Since I no longer needed a hot fi lling to cook the meringue, I thought I might be able to let the fi lling set up in the shell in the fridge. Two hours later (this can even be done the day before), my fi ll-ing emerged fi rm yet still silky. Tasters wanted the fi lling extra lemony and very rich to

balance all the meringue. It took a full cup of lemon juice,2 tablespoons of zest, and 8 yolks—more than I had seen in any other recipe—to please everyone.

With lots of lemon, miles of meringue, and absolutely no weeping, this pie can be counted on to deliver smiles all around the table every time you make it. –Stephanie Alleyne

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A hot sugar syrup “cooks” the egg whites and guarantees a fluffy, no-weep meringue.

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My husband’s all-time favorite dessert is lemon meringue pie, but I need a recipe that’s reliable and won’t weep. How do I keep the meringue light and fl uffy and HIGH? I want the best pie ever. He deserves it! –Pam Villanova, Ellington, Conn.

J U N E / J U L Y 2 0 0 6 • C O O K ’ S C O U N T R Y 17

(see recipe on page 18)

Kitchen Know-HowWEEP NO MORE

For our meringue, you don’t need a thermometer, but you do need a timer.

1. After the sugar syrup comes to a full boil, cook it for exactly 4 minutes. 2. Beat the egg whites with the salt and cream of tartar until they hold soft peaks.3. With the mixer still running, carefully pour the hot sugar syrup directly into the beaten egg whites. 4. Continue beating until the meringue has cooled to room temperature and is thick and fluffy.

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