Key Lime Pie

In my opinion, dessert is the best part of the meal. Often times I find myself thinking about dessert instead of my main course…. all thanks to my sweet tooth.  One dessert I love is key lime pie, and the best place to get it is where the limes come from, the Florida Keys.

            When I was in fourth grade my family and I went on a Disney Cruise. One of the places our boat stopped at was Key West. We got to tour the island, go to a pirate museum, and eat their famous Key lime pie of course!

            They have lots of Key lime flavored foods including key lime floats. The key lime floats were basically root beer floats but instead of root beer it was a yummy key lime drink with ice cream. And as for the key lime pie, it was out of this world. Since the limes that they use are grown right on the island, the pie tasted so good! And of course, the best way to eat it is with lots of fluffy meringue on top!

            The history of this famous key lime pie dates back to the end of the 18^th century.  It’s said that Florida’s first millionaire, William Curry had a cook called, “Aunt Sally” who made the first key lime pie. It’s a commonly told story but no one knows for sure if it’s completely accurate.

The three main ingredients in “Aunt Sally’s” recipe include lime juice, egg whites, and sweetened condensed milk. These ingredients together do not need to be cooked and they’re the reason for the pie’s texture and color. The limes, eggs, and condensed milk were readily available at the time, and are the reason key lime pie came to be. The canned milk did not need to be refrigerated, the limes were everywhere on the island, and lots of people got their eggs from chickens instead of a store, like most of us do now.

One other key lime pie theory is that it was originated by Sponge fishermen. These men would stay at sea for long periods of time and only had a small variety of food available to them on their boats. These ingredients just happened to be sweetened, condensed milk, limes, and eggs. Aunt Sally is actually connected to the Sponge fishermen. Some people believe that she got her recipe from these fishermen, and decided to try it out on William Curry. Mr. Curry obviously loved this dessert; otherwise it wouldn’t be an American favorite.  

source: http://www.key-largo-sunsets.com/history-of-key-lime-pie.html