Flavor Highlight: Key Lime Pie

One of my favorite gelato flavors, Key Lime Pie, holds a special place in my heart. Maybe because its just downright AWESOME or maybe its because I’m from Florida.  What is the connection between Florida and Key Lime Pie?

The origin of key lime pie can be traced back to the late 19th century in the Key West, Florida area.  The first formal mention of Key lime pie as a recipe may have been made by William Curry, a ship salvager and Key West’s first millionaire; his cook, “Aunt Sally”, made the pie for him. It is likely that Aunt Sally adapted the recipe  from one created by local sponge fishermen. As Sponge fishermen spent  days on their boats, they had to store nutritional food that wouldn’t spoil easily on their boats including basics such as canned milk, limes and eggs. With no ovens on the sponge boats, the original Key Lime Pie was actually mixed and consumed without cooking. 

Key lime pie is made with canned sweetened condensed milk, since fresh milk was not a common commodity in the Florida Keys before modern refrigerated distribution methods.

DID YOU KNOW?

In 1965, Florida State Representative Bernie Papy, Jr., introduced legislation calling for a $100 fine to anyone advertising Key lime pie not made with Key limes. Needless to say, no matter how crazy FLorida is, the bill did not pass.

In 2006, both the Florida House of Representatives and the Florida Senate passed legislation making Key Lime Pie as the “Official Pie of the State of Florida”, as of July 1, 2006.

WHAT ARE KEY LIMES?

Key limes are also known as Mexican lime and West Indies lime. Cultivated for thousands of years in the Indo-Malayan region, the Key lime made its way to North Africa and the Near East via Arabian traders, and then carried on to Palestine and Mediterranean Europe by the Crusaders. Columbus is credited with bringing the Key lime to Hispaniola (now known as Haiti), where it was carried on by Spanish settlers to Florida.

Key Limes flourish in South Florida, particularly the Florida Keys, giving them their current name. Due to hurricane-depleted soils, locals switched from growing pineapples  to limes in 1906, and business boomed until a hurricane once again reared and wiped out the lime groves, never to be restored. Today, most Key limes come from Mexico.

Key limes are much smaller (ping-pong to golfball-sized) than Persian limes, nearly spherical, thin-skinned, and often contain a few seeds. Green key limes are actually immature fruits, prized for their acidity. As they ripen to a yellow color, the acid content diminishes greatly, resulting in a sweeter fruit.