You need stiffer meringue, I think. adding, I think most commercial bakeries pipe the meringue on the pie, which makes it easier to create those crests and shepherds’ crooks.

@Kswl, it was fairly stiff. In fact, I wondered if it were too stiff. When I would try to pull it up with a spoon to make a peak, it didn’t budge. Another of those things I forgot to get Mother to teach me! 😞

I seem to remember my mom tapping the meringue with the spatula, lifting it, to make those curls on top. She would do that randlomly all over the top.

Gosh, your pie looks delicious even it you weren't happy with the meringue.

Not my pie, RN. Just a reasonable facsimile. Nevertheless, it looked decent and it tasted great!

Try using the point of the spoon and draw it back rather than sideways.

I have one big trick: It feels daunting, and I'm not that good at baking pretty, so I say, ”Who cares?” and go for it, and am so relaxed it actually does come out pretty. Meringue on pie. Not everything. I'm really bad at piping, though that's the ”proper” way. I do something similar to quenelles because that's what I'm comfortable with (was taught that in childhood). The long peak curls do come from more body, however, as well as drawing up as you're releasing. Since yours was almost too stiff, I'd say add a spoon of sugar gradually while you're whipping. (So it doesn't sink.) Unless your meringue was sweetened already?

What kind of sugar did you add to your egg whites?

Bbstx, do you add cream of tartar to your meringue? I add a small amount (for three egg whites maybe a quarter tsp) and that helps it keep its shape in the oven.

My meringue was 3 egg whites (room temp, sorta) and 5 teaspoons of white, granulated sugar. Using a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the whisk attachment, I beat the egg whites until they are foamy, then add the sugar and continue to beat until whites mostly hold their shape when the beater is held upright.

No cream of tartar. The meringue held its shape but I just couldn’t get the shape I wanted.

The current style is for softer meringue. Try beating until glossy, instead.

@plllog, do you mean stop when it just becomes glossy? It was still glossy but I had beat it a minute or two past soft, droopy peaks.

My greatest fear was that the meringue would weep. It didn’t do that! Maybe I ought to be grateful for my successes. 😁

Here are the tricks I've learned over the years for great meringue:

-room temperature egg whites

-add cream of tartar

-beat till glossy

Nice to know that you made this even if you didn't get the photogenic peaks you hoped for. I love all things meringue. In Uruguay almost all the desserts were finished with meringue.

bbstx, I think your meringues look just fine. I'm taste and effort over perfection.

I never make meringues, but when I beat eggs for a soufflé I always add a pinch of cream of tartar.

The acid from cream of tartar (or vinegar, lemon or a copper bowl) helps firm up the protein molecules as they uncoil in the beating process I believe).

Your pie looks just fine to me even if it wasn’t exactly what you wanted.

I also add cream of tartar to egg whites for meringue. I use an offset spatula usually to try to form the peaks. They don’t always come out just right but no one cares.

If it wouldn't form peaks, it may have been a little bit too stiff, as I think was already mentioned...?

I agree that piping makes for perfect-lookiing swirls - but who wants to get that fussy? 😄

No, real glossy comes with stiff peaks, after foamy and soft peaks. The appearance changes to very smooth, and you should have a really big volume You can't get that kind of pointy with soft peaks. If it doesn't make and hold that point as you lift the whisk tool from the bowl, it won't on the pie. Glossy comes with sugar, however, and you may not have enough sugar. Though, I have made stiff (not glossy) peaks with a just pinch of salt or sugar to stabilize, it's not the kind in your picture. More like stable soft peaks.

That’s interesting that a lot of the peak-y looking meringue is probably piped. Makes sense.

I will need to get some cream of tartar next time I make a pie. I use the Dr. Oettker/Shiriff pie fillings for lemon a key lime. Those are super good.

I use the KA stand mixer with the whip attachment. I find I need to whip the egg whites for a fairly long time to form soft peaks before I add the sugar.

I'm just going by what bbstx stated in her first reply - that it wouldn't budge when she tried to pull up the peaks.

I have edited the original post. The first picture is not mine, but it looks a like like mine looked.

I don’t have cream of tartar, mostly because I only make meringues about once every 5 years. And, more probably, because Mother never used it although she made beautiful pies.

My recipe is pretty sketchy. I don’t even know where it came from. This is how I’ve recorded it in my recipe app:

No instructions on making the crust. No instructions on making the meringue. No time on baking the meringue. And just a guess at the temperature of the oven. I had to cross reference a lot of other recipes.

If you're mixing and matching, consider adapting the sculptural Swiss meringue in this recipe: https://zoebakes.com/2019/01/27/mile-high-lime-meringue-tart/

I've made Swiss meringues. Sounds fussier than it really is, but I haven't made this recipe, and am going by the picture.

(I've saved this recipe to try.)

My thoughts are the same as others have suggested: tapping the meringue with the spatula, using the point of the spoon and draw it back rather than sideways, and adding cream of tartar -- which I buy as needed and it’s always out of date the next time I need it – but it works. On the other hand, these details fall into the "They'll eat it anyway" category, and if theh pie tastes good, that's what really matters.

Plllog, I saw some with Swiss meringues. It wasn’t in the cards for me the day I was making the pie. I had a day full of errands, plus had to make the pie, make sure it was well-chilled and then drive an hour to the dinner. The pie plate wouldn’t fit in any of my coolers, so here I am driving down the road with the pie in a HUGE upside down Tupperware bowl, sitting on the passenger seat with the seat cooler turned to its lowest setting and the passenger side a/c turned to its lowest setting and aimed directly onto the Tupperware bowl. And trying to figure out how I was going to turn it into a trifle if I had to slam on the brakes.

LOL to the trifle. :D I get it about the time favtor, but that puts us back to more sugar and more whipping.

I don't know if you read the recipe, but it says to torch the bowl and mix in the toasted meringue several times, so all the big pile of meringue will taste toasty.! I think that's brilliant. I might even work up the courage to fill and use the torch I was given a dozen years ago and have been too scared of to use...

If you decide to torch the bowl, etc. be sure to come back and let us know how it went and how it tasted. I was going to a fishfry with lots of country cooking on the table. Not a time to go off script, even if I had had time to try something new.

bbstx, that lemon pie recipe is the lemon variation of a pretty standard key lime pie and probably more people go with whipped cream because it's easy -- and available in a can. They probably figure that if you like meringue, you are going to know how to make it or be willing to figure it out. Same for the crust -- and I'd be willing to bet that's a puchased graham cracker crust nthe photo. Gotta make it look super easy. I do whipped cream (not from a can) with key lime, and that would be good with lemon, but I love lemon meringue and coconut meringue and will have a slice of one or the other every few years. When we do meringue, it's never the same -- swirls, twirls, peaks -- anything that has edges to brown and look pretty is good in my book. Bet everyone loves(loved) the pie.

Will do, but this isn't happening soon. ;) I'm reorganizing my kitchen, gradually, and I'd be scared of setting the place on fire.

I'm pretty sure I made this one on the fly like you were doing. A couple years ago. My pseudo-quenelles. I wasn't trying for any particular look, just even coverage. The recipe has a pinch of salt, 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar and 6 TBSP sugar for three eggwhites, all three things to increase success. IIRC, I beat to solid but not stiff peaks, going for a softer top, but there are some points.

I always add a little icing sugar.

After I saw your post aboiut proportions of egg white and sugar, I was going to say as Plllog has, that my recipes have 2 tablespoons of sugar per egg white, so I think your proportions are off for a start.

I would also add that, while some people do pipe their meringue onto the pie, none of the photos posted here have piped meringue. Piping is a very distict look.

@plllog, your picture is what I wanted mine to look like.

I suspect the dearth of sugar in the meringue is because Lemon Icebox Pie is already tooth-achingly sweet. Sweet meringue would just be too much.

Here’s mine from NY eve. As you can see, not peaky pretty at all, but still good. Mom and I used to buy the Dr. Oetker in Canada, but it is available on the Big A, also the key lime. The lemon is just the perfect level of tartness.

Okay, so those tall peaks might need all the sugar. Mine was that point where it looks like soft peaks but doesn't sink. You can do that without all the sugar, I think, but do add the cream of tartar next time, even if it's five years old (mine is!) and the salt. The salt helps the structure, and with such a sweet pie, if it tickles the salt receptors, that'll just make it better, but you can't generally taste it.

The important thing is that at this stage it's easy to deflate. Don't pipe! Just spoon it on gently, as even amounts as you can by eye., and use the tips from up topic abut pulling up with the point of the spoon, etc., to get some peakage. You should be able to swirl as you're spooning, too, with a little less pressure to get it done. I'm pretty sure my peaks were an artifact of transferring the meringue from the spoon to the pie. Two spoon, quasi-quenelle, but any way that works for you is good. One woman uses her well scrubbed, overlong acrylic nails! (Ugh! But whatever works, I guess.)

Your meringue browned, right? Because your sugar amount is about a third of what one would use for glossy. As long as it'll brown (it's the sugar that browns), it's all good. That is, assuming you can get enough solidity with the CoT and salt.

I know you can do this. Next time will be a lot more to your liking. Meantime, I'm sure your pie tasted good and looked good enough to eat. :)