Living history with food

When tourist like you and I think of Florida, its beautiful beach would never fail to pop up into our minds. Inevitably, we would think that seafood is their main regional cuisine. 

But you are wrong...

Presenting you the Key Lime Pie

A trip to Florida will not be complete if you did not try this pie!So what makes this dessert so special to Florida? 

The main ingredient of this dessert is Key Lime

Not our usual lime. 

It is smaller than a golf ball with yellow-green skin. It only grow well in limited zones and the Keys are one of those places.

Key lime pies were first made in the Keys in the 1850s. No fresh milk and refrigeration was available in the Keys until the 1930 and there were very few cows on the Keys,  thus local cooks had to rely on canned sweetened condensed milk. 

The key lime tree, native to Malaysia was probably first arrived in the Florida Keys in the 1500s with the Spanish. Key lime used to grow all over Keys, until 1926 when a hurricane wiped out the key lime plantations in South Florida, growers replanted with Persian limes, which are easier to pick and to transport.

Key Lime Pie is officially Florida state pie. (1 July, 2006)

The traditional key lime pie filling contains key lime juice, sweetened, condensed milk, and egg yolks.

A funny thing happens when you combine lime juice and sweetened, condensed milk. It sort of "cooks" itself without any heat. Most importantly, the filling of authentic key lime pie is light yellow not green like this:

To commemorate the importance of its state cuisine, a Key Lime Pie Festival would be held yearly.

The recipe which I am going to attempt it now, and perhaps you too!