The key ingredient
Tart. Traditional. The key lime is the cornerstone of Florida's official state pie. The world-famous dessert wouldn't be the same without it.
By JANET K. KEELER
Published June 7, 2006
If you live in Florida, you know an honest-to-goodness key lime pie from a pretender.
If you take a bite of the creamy yellow confection and your inner cheeks don't involuntarily meet in the middle of your tongue, you've been had by a Persian lime. The mighty pucker power of key lime separates true from false. You also might be suspect if the filling is glow-in-the-dark green. The neon color is fake; so the pie might be too.
For years, key lime pie has been a staple at big banquets, tourist haunts and corner diners throughout the Sunshine State. Today, bottled key lime juice is big business across the country, and it's not uncommon to find our humble pie on menus in San Francisco, Chicago and New York.
Joe's Stone Crab in Miami Beach might make the nation's most famous key lime pie, thanks to the legions of tourists who wait in line to eat a slice and some stone crab claws with mustard sauce. Both are available from Joe's by mail order (www.joesstonecrab.com or toll-free 1-800-780-2722).
On July 1, the key lime pie will be elevated to encyclopedia status when it becomes the official state pie of Florida. It'll be on the list of Florida superlatives with the state bird (mockingbird), reptile (alligator), marine mammal (manatee) and flower (orange blossom). Think of it as another thing your kids need to remember for civics class.
The Legislature gave key lime pie its due in May, with just a few politicians curiously favoring pecan. Sure, there are more commercial pecan groves in Florida than key lime, but, really now, how Georgian.
South Florida's key lime industry was wiped out in a 1926 hurricane and many growers replanted with hearty but more mild Persian limes. Those groves were decimated by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Today, most key lime trees in Florida are in people's yards. You should make friends with them. The bulk of the key limes we see in grocery stores are from Mexico.
Never mind that, the honor is more about a dessert made famous in Florida than agriculture.
Legislators made no determination about whether the authentic pie of the Florida Keys should have meringue or whipped topping, a question that's been hotly debated over the years. The truth is elusive but the meringue version uses up the egg whites separated from the yolks for the filling, so it might be the more economical choice. However, some folks are partial to how the creamy whipped topping harmonizes with the creamy sweet-tart filling. To each his own topping.
Food historians place the birth of the key lime pie in the Florida Keys in the mid to late 1800s.
That's when Borden's canned milk found its way to the chain of tropical islands and was a boon to cooks in prerefrigeration days.
"I believe in the islands they had plenty of condensed milk and they had to try to find a way to use it,'' says Jeff Schmidt, owner of J.J. Gandy's Pies of Palm Harbor. "They took that condensed milk and combined it with plentiful key limes and fresh eggs and made their traditional pie. Today, the graham cracker crust and real key lime juice are the key to making a really good pie.''
Schmidt should know. His company produces 2,500 key lime pies a month that are served at restaurants around the Tampa Bay area and sold in his bakery at 3725 Alt. U.S. 19; (727) 938-7437.
Early cookbooks show that the original pie was in a flaky pastry crust and it is unclear when or why the graham cracker crust became the norm. Despite claims that the key lime pie was born in the 1800s, there have been no recipes unearthed from that time, writes Steven Raichlen in Miami Spice (Workman, 1993.) Before he became the barbecue guru, Raichlen was all about the fusion cuisine of South Florida.
Food historian John Mariani, writing in the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink (Lebhar-Friedman, 1999), says the earliest recipes he has found are in a 1949 Key West cookbook. Two of them call for a pastry crust, the third graham cracker. Two of the recipes call for meringue, the other for whipped topping.
While the top and bottom of the pie are open to interpretation, the middle is not. There are just three ingredients in the filling, which makes key lime pie surprisingly easy to prepare: egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk and key lime juice (and key lime zest if you want more zing. And we do.).
Snub recipes that call for anything less than ½ cup of juice; they will be overly sweet and wimpy in the pucker department. Bottled juice is available year-round and the limes are ripe in the fall. They are round and yellow with very thin skin.
The filling in the first key lime pies was unbaked, but today most of us won't risk eating raw egg yolks. Baking the pie for under 10 minutes helps set it and kills worrisome contamination.
Make your own crust or buy one prepared. Do the same with the whipped cream. In the summertime, when the weather is hot, a cool slice of tart key lime pie is refreshing, and now historical.
Vermont is the only other state with an official pie, the all-American apple. With Fourth of July coming, maybe it's time to say as "American as key lime pie." At least in Florida.
Janet K. Keeler can be reached at (727) 893-8586 or e-mail jkeeler@sptimes.com.
Key Lime Pie, Two Ways
Crust:
1¼ cup graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup
5-1/2 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
Filling:
3 egg yolks
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons fresh key lime juice, or 5 tablespoons each regular lime juice and fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons grated lime zest, preferably from key limes
Meringue topping:
3 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ cup granulated sugar
Whipped cream topping:
1 cup heavy (or whipping) cream
3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon grated lime zest, preferably from key limes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. To prepare the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs and butter in a mixing bowl and mix to form a crumbly dough. Press the mixture into an 8-inch pie pan. Bake the crust for 5 minutes. Remove the crust from the oven, but leave the oven on.
Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Combine the egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk in a mixing bowl and beat with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Gradually beat in the lime juice and zest.
Pour the mixture into the crust. Bake the pie for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the filling is set and an inserted skewer comes out clean and hot to the touch. Remove the pie from the oven. If choosing the meringue topping, increase the temperature to 400 degrees and proceed with instructions on preparing the meringue. If choosing the whipped cream topping, turn off the oven, set the pie on a rack to cool and proceed to the instructions for preparing the whipped topping.
Prepare the meringue by beating the egg whites to soft peaks with a mixer, starting on low and gradually increasing the speed to high, and adding the cream of tartar after 20 seconds. Beat in the sugar in a thin steam and continue beating until the whites are glossy and firm, but not dry. Spread or pipe the meringue on top of the pie. Bake until the meringue is browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Let the pie cool to room temperature. Refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 4 hours before serving.
To prepare the whipped cream topping, place the cream in a chilled bowl and beat until soft peaks form. Add the confectioners' sugar, vanilla and lime zest and beat the cream until stiff. Spread or pipe the whipped cream on top of the pie. Refrigerate, uncovered, until serving. For the best results, serve within 1 hour of adding the whipped cream.Source: "Miami Spice" by Steven Raichlen (Workman, 1993)