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I've only ever ventured to make meringue once, and that was when I was much younger...we figured it couldn't be that hard. We ended up with some tasty treats but not what you'd call great. On meringue in general I think you've already said it really, it depends on what you're going to use it for. IMHO meringue on lemon pie should be nice and gooey, with a bit of caramelisation. Adornments to other things should be hard, dry and crunchy to offset whatever else they're with. I'm not sure there is One True Way(tm) for meringue. N p.s. I wish I knew how to spell meringue Martin Frost wrote: > Apropos of nothing in particular, a question about meringue. > > Where do people stand on the question of oven temperature > and cooking time? > > All the cookery books and TV programmes I have seen say > that the object is not to cook the meringue but to dry > it, and so you should have a very cool oven and keep it > in there for several hours. The problem with this approach > from my point of view is that it always seems to result in > something largely indistinguishable from those horrible > chemical-laden white things you get in packets. > > I have always cooked meringues at quite a high temperature > (Gas Mark 6 or 7) for only 40 minutes or so, which produces > to my mind a more pleasant texture, with a crunchy slightly > caramelised exterior and a slightly gooey centre. > > The silly thing is that most of the TV cooks seem to follow up > their slow careful drying process by waving a blowtorch over > the thing to get the caramelised effect they could have achieved > by cooking it at a higher temperature in the first place. > > Obviously it does depend on the purpose of the meringue. > A drier, sturdier texture is required for a pavlova, as > otherwise the result would collapse into a pile of slop. > > Other opinions? > > --m > >
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