Sounds like it wasn't cooked enough. Here's a great recipe that we love & have had terrific results with it, may or may not differ from the one you used..

Lucy

Here is a link that might be useful: lemon meringue pie

Best Ever Lemon Pie

(from Ann Landers... it won some type of award)I clipped this from the newspaper a very, very long time ago!

1 baked 9-inch pie shell
1¼ cups sugar
6 Tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups water
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 egg yolks
1½ tsp lemon extract
2 tsp vinegar
3 Tablespoons butter

Mix sugar and cornstarch together in top of a double boiler. Add the water.

Combine egg yolks with lemon juice and beat until well mixed. Add to the rest of the sugar mixture. Cook over boiling water until thick, about 25 minutes. This does away with the starchy taste. Now add the lemon extract, butter and vinegar, and stir thoroughly. Pour mixture into deep 9-inch pie shell, and let cool. Cover with meringue, and brown in oven.

NEVER-FAIL MERINGUE

1 Tablespoon cornstarch
2 Tablespoons cold water
½ cup boiling water
3 egg whites
6 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch salt

Blend cornstarch and cold water in a saucepan. Add boiling water, and cook, stirring until clear and thickened. Let stand until completely cold. With electric beater at high speed, beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add sugar, and beat until stiff but not dry. Turn mixer to low speed, add salt and vanilla. Gradually beat in cold cornstarch mixture. Turn mixer again to high, and beat well.

Spread meringue over cooled pie filling. Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes, or until top is lightly browned.

Do you know what Bobby, I was having the same issues with lemon pies and I think that was the first thing I ever asked about on this forum! I used a Betty Crocker recipe for years and it just stopped working for some reason. I have another recipe now that I use that does work, but I had several Betty Crocker ones that didn't set up and maybe I was out of practice far as cooking times and what not since a number of years had gone by that I hadn't made any.

I'll find the recipe later and post it if it's substantially different than those posted, just for variety. Matter of fact, I should see how if it all it differs from the Betty Crocker one!

I hope your next outing will be better whatever recipe you use! I'm sorry you had trouble, but in a way it's redeeming to know someone else had the same issue. More people seem to have meringue issues than issues with the pie filling itself. I have one friend who struggles with anything involving beating of egg whites, and I can't make fudge to save my freaking life. I guess we're all different!

Thanks. I tried again today. I haven't sliced it yet, but I'm sure it will be fine. I boiled the filling for 15 minutes stirring constantly and then baked it for 20. Then added the meringue and baked another 10. I'll hang up my apron if this it is still liquid after all that!

Scott, meringue is easy. Set the KA on speed 10 and come back in two minutes. All done! It is good to know others have the same experience.

The lemon meringue pie was one of my first pie disasters. What frustrated me most was every cookbook that i read did not explain why the meringue would weep. Or even why it wouldnt set. I think i found out from a cooking forum like this. Wait a minute. I did learn it from this site. I think a KT-How To-Cookbook is needed.

It set this time! I think it's great, but my co-workers thought it to be a bit tart. I followed this recipe from the Food Network exactly. The one lady who loves lemon called in sick today... I'm going to finish the whole thing and take a picture to show her what she missed.

Lemon Filling:
4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1 (9-inch) pre-baked pie shell
1 recipe Meringue, recipe follows

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.

Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour mixture into pie shell and top with meringue while filling is still hot. Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure pie is cooled completely before slicing.

Meringue Topping:
4 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar
2 tablespoons sugar

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Use to top lemon filling.
Yield: topping for 1 (9-inch) pie

It was a LOT of work to baby the filling into the egg yolks so they didn't cook... took forever. Definitely not something I'd want to make all the time!

You mean there is such a thing as a too tart lemon pie? :D
I love tart lemon anything, and most lemon pies are too sweet for me. So, I am stealing your recipe!

As for the Microplane, you probably don't "need" one, but it's a tool I don't want to be without now that I have it. It's saved a lot of strain on a bad wrist, and nothing beats it for either zest or grating hard cheeses. (And the one for soft cheeses goes through a pound of mozzarella like it's air.)

Meringue..hehe...I learned not to let DH make the meringue. He overbeats it until it's like stucco!

Beanthere, it is pretty tart! I usually use bottled RealLemon for lemon juice. For the pie, I bought real lemons... it took three to make enough juice/zest. I would recommend that you cook the daylights out of the filling before adding the meringue so that it sets. Also, 4 whites creates a lot of meringue... you may not want to use all of it! The meringue wasn't very proportionate to the amount of filling, there was a LOT more meringue.

Ah, thanks for the warning since I'm not big on a lot of meringue!

I used to have a recipe for a Shaker Lemon Pie that had the pulp and zest then whole slices of slices of lemon in it. It was tart, but delicious. The recipe was a victim of a hard drive crash.

Bobby, be aware that if you cook cornstarch mixtures too long they will start to break down, so don't cook it to death :-). To be honest, I never bother tempering the eggs, I just dump them in with the butter and whisk like crazy so they don't cook too fast :-)

Well, I'm glad I didn't cook it too long then... the pie set up great! I guess the key is to find the perfect balance. However, the time that recipe recommends isn't near long enough! Good to know about tempering the eggs... it is very time consuming... I guess I could do it fast and then strain the lumps out!

The very same thing happened to me, on Boxing Day. i followed the recipe exactly, and set it in the ref for 1full day. the meringue was wonderful, YET when i cut into the pie it was NOTHING but goop! How disappointing!! perhaps, I needed to cook the filling in the pie crust FOR AT LEAST 15-20 minutes, before I dumped the topping onto the ldmon filling. any hints would be helpful.

You might get more responses if you start a new thread

If you read my comment two above yours, you would see that cooking the filling too long causes the cornstarch to break down and make the filling turn to goop. Just cook it until it gets thick, then stop.

I would speculate that the pudding base was not cooked to a full, yet gentle, boil before the eggs were added.

I make chocolate pudding all the time for hubs, as it is his go to favorite. It is much the same process of making a thickened pudding base before adding the eggs.

Once the base comes to a boil, let it cook gently for a couple of minutes until it thickens up, but do account for the fact that it is going to get thicker as it sets up.

Then add in the eggs and I generally bring it back to a very gentle boil ,briefly

If you continue cooking that with the eggs in it, it is going to do some strange things to the eggs.

After all, this is not really a custard pie such as a pumpkin or a buttermilk where it gets baked in the oven.

I have a recipie from an old Betty Crocker book that uses both cornstarch and flour in egual measure. I like it better than just corn starch. It seems to give some extra body to the pie, but it doesnt taste at all floury.

My difficulty is with the meringue... I cant seem to make one that does not end up weeping.

You might try adding in a couple of tablespoons of flour along with the starch. I think it makes a nice difference and I have never had any problem with it not setting up.

But, really, cook it until if has thickened BEFORE adding the eggs, and bring it back to a gentle boil very briefly after the eggs. I bet that solves the problem.

I’ve never reboiled mine after adding the eggs, and never had a goopiness issue. At one point I was making multiple lemon meringue pies every week as a dessert in a restaurant.

i dont reboil it. I just bring it back to where it breaks a couple of bubbles, very gently, very briefly. I never have a problem with it setting, either.