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That little old lady at the county fair taught me the trick for perfect meringue
I was at the Baker County Fair last fall and this woman named Margaret who must have been 80 years old walked up to my booth where I was struggling with a runny meringue. She told me I needed to wipe down my bowl with lemon juice first to get rid of any grease, even a tiny bit will wreck it. I tried it on my next batch at home and it came out so stiff and glossy it held peaks for 3 days. Has anyone else got a weird little tip like that from a random stranger?
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veraw473d ago
Did you try wiping down the bowl with a cut lemon or just the juice?
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benb213d ago
3 batches of meringue I made before I ran into Margaret were total garbage. I honestly thought the whole "wipe with lemon" thing was an old wives tale, I always just used soap and water and figured that was good enough. But after she showed me I tried it and yeah it's a COMPLETELY different result, that little bit of acid cuts through any oil residue you can't even see. It's funny how something that seems so small can be the difference between a stiff meringue and a soupy mess. Now I keep a bottle of lemon juice next to my mixer specifically for that.
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