What should the texture of meringue be in a lemon meringue pie?
This is one of those questions to which there are as many answers as there are chefs ;)
Personally, I would say - you want all three, at different depths in your meringue.
The peaks should be browned &amp; just crisp.
A millimetre or two below that ought to have an 'al dente' feel to it, a hint of 'chewy' but only a hint.
Below that it ought to be barely set, but it must be set.
If you get it like this it will survive only briefly.
If kept for more than a few hours, maybe a day tops, the top goes from crisp to chewy, below will go from light to rubbery to sloppy… until you end up with the stuff you buy in supermarkets :\