Key Lime Pie
In “A Gourmet’s Guide: Food and Drink from A to Z” by John Ayto (Oxford University Press, 1993), Key lime pie is described as “An American pie containing a lime-flavored custard topped with meringue.” It takes its name from the Flordia Keys.”There is a little more to it than that.
It is the official dessert of Florida Keys and Key West. Restaurants around the country serve Key Lime Pie in many forms, some true to the original and some truly bizarre variations. Everyone has their favorite restaurant version, and usually their own favorite home version. Key limes are very sour, and Key lime juice can be used to make a perfect custard-like filling for pies.
Because of the Florida Keys isolation before the railroad was opened in 1912, fresh milk was hard to come by. So Gail Borden’s invention of sweetened condensed (canned) milk in 1859 came in handy. It also meant that you could make a custard pie without the necessity of cooking it. The Key lime juice by itself was enough to curdle the condensed milk and egg yolks. No one knows who made the first one. They were probably made with pie crusts at first, but soon the Graham cracker crust became the standard.
Many who have ordered a Key Lime Pie at a restaurant or made it at home, have never really tasted a real Key Lime Pie. What they have eaten is a Persian Lime Pie. The Persian Lime or Tahiti Lime (botanical name, Citrus latifolia) is a relatively new fruit, having been developed in the early 20th century. This is the usual oval, dark green and with a thick rind, Lime you find in supermarkets.On the other hand, the Key Lime, Mexican Lime or West Indian Lime, (botanical name, Citrus aurantifolia), is round and small (Ping Pong ball size and smaller), a lighter shade of green (often yellow) with a thin skin and a delicate aroma. You can grow it in Florida and in southern California, but you’ll find it only occasionally in supermarkets. It is thought to have originated in Southeast Asia several centuries ago and traveled, first with the Arabs to the Mediterranean , then with the Crusaders to Europe. The trees came to the string of Florida islands known as The Keys by way of Christopher Columbus who brought citrus fruits with him on his second voyage to the Caribbean Sea in 1493, when lime trees were planted first in Haiti, then called Hispaniola. As the people of the Caribbean moved around, they took with them the seeds of this tart and aromatic fruit and by the early nineteenth century there were groves of lime trees in Key West, the southernmost point of the continental United States.
What Key West lacked, however, was cows, and milk and cream were hard to come by until Gail Borden invented sweetened condensed milk in the mid 1800’s. This canned product was a boon to the “Conchs,” as natives of Key West are known, and they soon used it to create a lime pie, similar to a favorite Caribbean dessert made with sour oranges. They were also quick to realize the new dish would cook itself because of the acidic content of lime juice.
It can take up to 12 of the small key limes to make 1/2 cup of the juice, more than twice the number of Persian limes, but if you can find the key limes in your supermarket (ask the produce manager when to expect them!), it is well worth it.
If you MUST use Persian limes, substitute lemon juice for half the amount of juice and you will approximate the more delicate key lime flavor. You will also approximate the yellow-green color which is distinctive of the key lime juice (NEVER use green coloring in a Key Lime pie — it’s a phony giveaway!).
Bottled juice will also work and you might want to consider freezing extra juice (either fresh or bottled) for later use. Just pour the juice into an ice cube tray, pop out the cubes when frozen and put them in a plastic bag and you’ll have lime juice on hand without worrying about its discoloring over time.
Click on the Key Lime Pie category to the left and start testing some of the recipes.
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