Fun fact: My favorite pie is key lime pie. There is a pie store (called The Pie Store) in Montclair, New Jersey that makes the best key lime pie, but today I decided I was going to make my own. Why? Well, I started looking into the history of key lime pie and I found that the debate around the history of this particular dessert is hot enough to bake it… if you bake it at all, which is a bakers’ debate that I’m not going to get into here. There are three ingredients in my (and most) key lime pies: sweetened condensed milk (I used coconut creme as a substitute because I’m lactose intolerant), egg yolks, and lime juice.
Key lime pie would seem to have its origins in Key West, Florida. Makes sense, right? Key lime, key west, done. One theory is that it was made by someone named Aunt Sally who created the pie for a multi-millionaire ship salvager in Florida named William Curry. Another theory is that fishermen, who had very few rations on their boats, made the pie out of what they had with them. With this version, the no-bake recipe makes sense. There is also debate over a cookbook published by Stella Parks who said that she consulted with a local Key West historian who could not find a published or written recipe for key lime pie before 1949. However, the story that makes the most sense to me is the version that says the pie was invented in the 1930s. Geography teachers, this could be a fun food tie-in for you when you’re teaching about archipelagos and the challenges of different geographic regions. Key West was rather cut off from the rest of the United States, and there was no refrigeration or fresh ice there in the 1930s. Until fresh milk was delivered to the keys by truck, people had to use canned milk in their recipes. The Borden company, who makes canned condensed milk, published a recipe on the can for Lemon Cream Pie in the 30s, and people in Key West swapped out the lemon for their key limes: voila! key lime pie was born!
Additionally, key limes are also special in themselves. They’re small like lemons, and they’re a greenish-yellow color and originated in Malaysia. It is likely that the key lime trees in Florida came here with the Spanish. They were also grown in large quantities in the West Indies and eaten by sailors to fend off scurvy. The name “Limeys” for Englishmen comes from this medical discovery by a Scottish naval surgeon. Most of the limes we see today are Persian limes, even though key limes were grown commercially in the Keys starting in 1835. Key limes were grown in Florida until the 1920s, when a hurricane destroyed many of the lime groves there. Key West farmers replaced the trees with Persian lime trees because they’re easier to grow and transport. Today, most key limes are commercially grown in Miami and any key limes grown in the actual Florida Keys are grown in people’s backyards, and refrigeration and the Overseas Highway took care of the “no fresh milk” problem.
Here’s the recipe I used for Key Lime Pie:
- Crust:
- 9 graham crackers, crushed
- 7 tbsp butter, melted
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2c packed brown sugar
- Filling:
- 1/2c key lime juice (key limes are so little- it’d take forever to juice them- and they’re hard to find!)
- 4 egg yolks
- 14oz condensed milk (or coconut cream)
For the crust, crush the graham crackers and mix with packed brown sugar. Pour in butter and vanilla and mix with a fork. Bake at 325 degrees for 10m.
For the filling, whisk together lime juice, egg yolks, and condensed milk. Fill the warm pie crust and bake for 20-30m or until the pie filling sets. Let the finished pie stand for 10 minutes and then refrigerate until cooled. You can garnish with lime zest, cut limes, meringue made from the leftover egg whites, or whipped cream.
- Sources:
- https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/10/dining/national-origins-south-florida-in-sour-splendor-the-real-key-lime-still-rules.html
- https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/PieHistory/KeyLimePie.htm
- https://www.southernliving.com/news/key-lime-pie-history