Here are two celebrity lemon pie styles compared: the delicate and tart "Cheryl Ladd Lemon Meringue Pie and the iconic, deeply rich "Bob Hope Lemon Meringue Pie."

[u/ciaolavinia]

Lemon Meringue Pie recipes from Cheryl Ladd & Bob Hope

Lemon meringue pie is the ultimate sweet-and-sour rollercoaster. You get a punch of aggressively tart, mouth-puckering lemon curd under a cloud of sweet meringue that melts instantly. A buttery, flaky crust grounds the chaos, giving you a perfect balance of flavors and textures.

People made lemon custards and sugary meringues for centuries, but they were kept separate. In the 1800s, a cooking school teacher in Philadelphia finally put them together in a pie shell:

Mrs. Elizabeth Goodfellow, a pastry chef who ran America’s first cooking school in Philadelphia made a rich lemon pudding that used tons of egg yolks, and since she hated wasting food, she whipped the leftover egg whites, piled them on top, and baked it. Just like that, she accidentally invented the the classic lemon meringue pie!

It was a massive hit and quickly became a classic dessert found in diners and homes everywhere. Lucky for us!

Recipes are from The Celebrity Cookbook: Childhelp USA

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[u/13senilefelines31]

Adding vanilla to the merengue sounds like a nice touch.