Lemon Meringues from Martha Stewart Living

I got my copy of Martha Stewart Living this week, and at the back was a recipe for meringues.  There are only two main ingredients, so that's what I decided to make this week.  For a meringue, one must whisk egg whites to varying degrees of stiffness.  I followed the recipe exactly, and it took me about an hour to whisk them to floppy peaks.  Now, my whisk muscles are a little flabby and Kung Fu Panda was on TV, so that might have distracted me, but why on earth did it take that long to whisk the eggs?  I did some research on egg whites, and this is what I learned:

*  Older eggs take less time for peaks to form than fresh eggs, but they lose their stiffness quickly as well, so don't over whisk them.  My eggs were less than fresh but they were never stiff; they were always a foamy liquid. Thus, I didn't think that that was my problem.

*  If any yolk gets in the egg whites AT ALL, then they just won't get stiff.  The same goes for butter or other oils, they won't let the whites stiffen either.  One source said not to use a plastic bowl because the grease residues are impossible to wash off, which will also prevent stiff eggs.  There was no yolk in my eggs, and I was using a freshly washed glass bowl, so that was not it either.

*  Egg whites get stiffer faster without any other ingredients in them.  If you put sugar in the eggs without peaks already forming, they will still stiffen but it will take much longer.  Ah-ha!  Martha's recipe told me to whisk eggs until foamy (NOT stiff), then add sugar, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt, THEN whisk into stiff peaks.

*  If you live above 3,500 feet and a recipe calls for stiff peaks, go for soft peaks instead.  Dry mountain air sucks the moisture out of food.  I did this, and my meringues came out of the oven nice and crunchy.  After less than 24 hours though, the outsides are a little mushy, so I think I might raise the temperature of the oven next time.  They were in at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 1/2 hours.

I learned a lot about eggs this week, and I hope you don't make the same mistakes I did!  They're not bad meringues, but it could have been a lot easier, and they could have turned out just a smidge better.