Type | Pie |
---|---|
Course | Dessert |
Place of origin | United States |
Region or state | Key West, Florida |
Main ingredients | Graham cracker crust, Key lime juice, egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk |
Key lime pie is an American dessert pie. It is made of Key lime juice, egg yolks, and sweetened condensed milk. It may be served with no topping, with a meringue topping made from egg whites, [1] or with whipped cream. Traditionally, Key Lime pie is made using a graham cracker crust. It may be made with or without baking in a pie crust or without crust. [2] The dish is named after the small Key limes, which are more aromatic than the common Persian limes, and which have yellow juice. The filling in a Key lime pie is typically yellow because of the egg yolks. [1]
The filling is made similarly to a Magic Lemon cream pie, by mixing the ingredients without cooking: the proteins of the egg yolks and condensed milk and the acidic lime juice curdle, thickening the mixture without baking. The pies are usually baked to pasteurize the eggs and thicken the filling further.
Key lime pie is probably derived from the "Magic Lemon Cream Pie" published in a promotional brochure by Borden, a producer of condensed milk, in 1931. [3] The recipe is attributed to Borden's fictional spokesperson, Jane Ellison, and includes condensed milk, lemon juice and rind, and egg yolks. It is covered with meringue, baked, and served cold. [4] According to the pastry chef Stella Parks, users of the recipe altered it with local ingredients; she describes it as "a stunning reminder of how deeply America's traditions are shaped by advertising". [3]
A "Tropical Lime Chiffon Pie", using condensed milk and egg yolks, is documented in a 1933 Miami newspaper article. [5] An "icebox lime pie", was mentioned as a specialty of the Florida Keys in 1935. [6] [ full citation needed ] and a recipe under the name "Key Lime Pie" was published in 1940. [7] [ full citation needed ]
No earlier solid sources are known, despite appeals to the public. [8] [9] A 1927 Key West Women's Club cookbook does not mention the recipe. [10] A 1926 restaurant menu includes "lime pie", but it is unclear what it was. Various accounts claim that it was known earlier, but none were recorded before 1933. [11] [9] A widely reported story claims that William Curry's cook Aunt Sally invented it in the late 19th century. But there is no evidence for this, and the oldest version of this story dates to only 1995, in promotional materials for a Bed and Breakfast in Curry's former house. [3]
It was in the 1950s that Key lime pie was promoted as Florida's "most famous treat" and in 1987 as "the greatest of all regional American desserts." [3]
Key lime ( Citrus aurantifolia 'Swingle') is naturalized throughout the Florida Keys. While the tree's thorns make harvesting them less tractable, and the fruit's thin, yellow rind is more perishable than the common Persian limes seen year-round at grocery stores in the United States, Key limes are both more tart and more aromatic. They have not been grown commercially in the U.S. since the 1926 Miami hurricane, and are generally imported from Central or South America. [3] [12] Key lime juice, unlike regular lime juice, is a pale yellow. Bottled Key lime juice, invariably from concentrate, is widely available at retail in the United States. [12]
Florida State Representative Bernie Papy, Jr. is said to have introduced geographical indication legislation in 1965 calling for a $100 fine to be levied against anyone advertising Key lime pie not made with Key limes. The bill failed. [13]
Florida statute 15.052, passed in July 2006, designates Key lime pie "the official Florida state pie". [14] [15]
In the television series Dexter , key lime pie features significantly in the episode "Easy As Pie", in which Camilla Figg tasks Dexter to bring her the "perfect key lime pie." [16]
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit, nuts, fruit preserves, brown sugar, sweetened vegetables, or with thicker fillings based on eggs and dairy. Savoury pies may be filled with meat, eggs and cheese or a mixture of meat and vegetables.
Lemon meringue pie is a dessert pie consisting of a shortened pastry base filled with lemon curd and topped with meringue.
A custard pie is any type of uncooked custard mixture placed in an uncooked or partially cooked crust and baked together. In North America, "custard pie" commonly refers to a plain mixture of milk, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and sometimes nutmeg combined with a pie crust. It is distinctly different from a cream pie, which contains cooked custard poured into a cooled, precooked crust. In the United Kingdom, the comical or political act of pieing is conventionally done with a "custard pie". Some common custard pies include pumpkin pie, lemon and buttermilk chess pie, coconut cream pie, and buko pie. True custard is defined as a liquid thickened with eggs. The often large number of whole eggs in custard pie make it very rich.
Chess pie is a dessert with a filling composed mainly of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes milk, characteristic of Southern United States cuisine.
Lemon ice box pie is an icebox pie consisting of lemon juice, eggs, and condensed milk in a pie crust, frequently made of graham crackers and butter. It is a variant of key lime pie; in both, the citric acidity sets the egg yolks, with minimal baking. There are also no bake versions.
A cream pie, crème pie, or creme pie is a type of pie filled with a rich custard or pudding that is made from milk, cream, sugar, wheat flour, and eggs and typically topped with whipped cream.
Fruit curd is a dessert spread and topping. It is usually made with citrus fruit, though may be made with other fruits. Curds are often used as spreads and as flavourings.
A chiffon pie is a type of pie that consists of a special type of airy filling in a crust. The filling is typically produced by folding meringue into a mixture resembling fruit curd that has been thickened with unflavored gelatin to provide a light, airy texture; it is thus distinguished from a cream pie or mousse pie, which achieve lightness by folding in whipped cream rather than meringue. This filling is then put into a pre-baked pie shell of variable composition and chilled. This same technique can also be used with canned pumpkin to produce pumpkin chiffon pie.
Custard tarts or flan pâtissier/parisien are a baked pastry consisting of an outer pastry crust filled with egg custard.
A lemon tart is a dessert dish, a variety of tart. It has a pastry shell with a lemon flavored filling.
Buko pie, sometimes anglicized as coconut pie, is a traditional Filipino baked young coconut (malauhog) pie. It is considered a specialty in the city of Los Baños, Laguna located on the island of Luzon.
Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the British poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by British food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.
Pie in American cuisine evolved over centuries from savory game pies with inedible free-standing crusts. When sugar became more widely available women made simple sweet fillings with a handful of basic ingredients. By the 1920s and 1930s there was growing consensus that cookbooks needed to be updated for the modern electric kitchen. New appliances, recipes and convenience food ingredients changed the way Americans made iconic dessert pies like key lime pie, coconut cream pie and banana cream pie.
Butterscotch pie is a pie in American cuisine made by cooking brown sugar with egg yolks, corn starch, milk or cream, and butter to make a butterscotch custard pie filling which is topped with meringue and browned in the oven. Variations on the basic pie can be made with grated chocolate or orange rind which are sprinkled on the warm filling under the meringue topping.
Icebox pies are no-bake pies including ice cream pies, chiffon pies, and classic cream pies like key lime pie, lemon ice box pie, chocolate pudding pie, grasshopper pie and banana cream pie. The crust can be a crumb crust or blind baked pastry. They are associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States.
Atlantic Beach pie is a type of lemon curd pie which uses a saltine crust and whipped cream topping sprinkled with salt.
Key Limes for commercial use have not been grown in the Keys for many years