Lemon meringue pie

Lemon meringue pie
A slice of pie showing its crust, lemon curd filling, and meringue topping.
TypePie
CourseDessert
Main ingredients
Food energy
(per 127 g serving)
285 kcal (1,190 kJ)
Nutritional value
(per 127 g serving)
Protein4.8 g
Fat16.4 g
Carbohydrate49.7 g

Lemon meringue pie is a dessert pie consisting of a shortened pastry base filled with lemon curd and topped with meringue.

History

Lemon meringue pie in Paris

Documentation of fruit desserts covered with baked meringue goes back to the 18th century in France. In 1739, Menon offers a recipe for pommes meringuées, a dessert of thick apple sauce or apple butter covered with meringue. A recipe for lemon custard covered with baked meringue, crême meringuée, appeared in an English cookbook published in 1769.This may have been a translation from an earlier Menon cookbook. Similar recipes were published in 19th century America: apple pie covered with meringue, called 'apple a la turque' (1832) and 'apples meringuées' (1846). A generic 'meringue pie' based on any pie was documented in 1860. The name 'Lemon Meringue Pie' appears in 1869, but lemon custard pies with meringue topping were often simply called 'lemon cream pie'. In literature one of the first references to this dessert can be found in the book 'Memoir and Letters of Jenny C. White Del Bal' by Rhoda E. White, published in 1868.

A chocolate meringue variant exists.

Preparation

A stiff lemon-flavored custard is prepared with egg yolks, lemon zest and juice, sugar, and sometimes starch and baked in a pie crust. Uncooked meringue, usually shaped into peaks, is spread over the top, sometimes with a sprinkle of sugar, and briefly baked.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Menon (pseud.), Nouveau traité de la Cuisine, v. 2, p. 91
  2. ↑ B. Clermont, The Professed Cook, 2nd edition, 1769, p. 426
  3. ↑ (Menon), Les soupers de la cour, 1778, vol. 3, p. 86>
  4. ↑ A Boston Housekeeper (Mrs. N. K. M. Lee), The Cook's Own Book and Housekeeper's Register
  5. ↑ Louis-Eustache Audot, French Domestic Cookery, 1846, p. 206
  6. ↑ Mrs. T.J. Crowen, American Lady's System of Cookery, New York, 1860, s.v. "Meringue Pie", p. 256
  7. ↑ American Agriculturalist 28:7:p. 262 (New Series, No. 270)
  8. ↑ Rufus Estes, Good Things to Eat, as Suggested by Rufus, 1911, p. 89
  9. ↑ White, Rhoda E. Memoir and Letters of Jenny C. White del Bal, page 212
  10. ↑ Schmitt, Brad. "Meet the 93-year-old lady whose pies can go for more than $2,000 each". The Tennessean. Retrieved 17 January 2025.
  11. ↑ Disbrowe, Paula. "The Alchemy of Egg Whites". Texas Co-op. Retrieved 17 January 2025.