One Saturday, as my children and I were measuring out all the ingredients for a recipe, I told them how important math is. I shared how we use it in almost everything we do, especially when working in the kitchen and measuring with fractions. They were both naturally more interested in the dessert we were making than a discussion with Dad about mathematics.
The conversation gradually shifted from the order of operations (Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally) to the origin and stories behind some of our favorite foods. One very popular local treat left me quite intrigued while pondering another Aunt Sally – this one from the Key West history books, not the math books. I started doing some research and learned a great deal about something that is as much a part of our American culture as baseball and apple pie. (Well, perhaps not exactly.)
Down here on the rocks, the only thing that whips up more controversy than who makes the best Key lime pie is who invented the delicious “sweet-tart” of a recipe in the first place? Many credit this world-renowned taste of Florida to botanist Jack Simmons, while still others swear good old Aunt Sally conjured it up while serving as a cook in William “Rich” Curry’s kitchen way back in the late 1800s. Bear in mind, cold air conditioning was a seemingly unachievable luxury at that time.
Lacking refrigeration, and often having only condensed milk, one can see how the story makes sense. Locals say pelicans provided the original eggs for early recipes, but not unlike today, there were probably a few chickens willing to help with the needed egg yolk supply. So once we had the tiny limes, egg yolks and canned-condensed milk, we had all the key ingredients to make magic happen.
Lime juice is a very critical part of the recipe, but it can’t be the juice of the commonly sold Persian lime, but rather the local Key lime. Authentic Key lime juice is not green, nor should it ever add a green tint to your creation – that could be cause for permanent exile from the island chain and perhaps from the entire Sunshine State.
Florida’s official state pie (designated as such in 2006 by the Florida State Legislature) is made using only juice from the authentic Key lime, whipped egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk, just as it was in days of old. As to a pastry crust vs. graham cracker crust, meringue vs. whipped cream, or leaving it as naked as a Fantasy Fest regular, these debates may all continue indefinitely.
As if this local delicacy was not shrouded in enough mystery, some have even claimed the true state of origin for the Key lime pie was … wait for it … New York City. (I know, I wrote the words and immediately made a face like I just drank a gallon of lime juice.) Yet, some do link the early pie recipes to the Big Apple. Others contend the Borden company is the rightful inventor, claiming similarities between printed recipes for the company’s lemon pies and Key lime pies are no mere coincidence.
Some will even argue that Aunt Sally was not even real, or that she could not have had access to the needed condensed milk ingredient at the time to create the pie’s filling.
Local author David Sloan, the man behind Key West Key Lime Festival, contends the stories behind Aunt Sally as the originator of Key Lime Pie are not just true, but beyond reproach. Locals are, for the most part, in agreement the pie’s origin comes from the same backyards as where the fruit trees have always grown. The debate over New Yorkers versus Floridians getting credit for the recipe will likely rage on. It remains as hot a topic as predicting the winner when the Dolphins play the Jets.
There is no need to be sour about any of this, though, because regardless of its origin, Key lime pie is part of our history and culture and it is as popular as our Florida sunsets. As long as we can pick the tiny limes off our trees in our tropical backyards, the dessert will likely remain. Well, that is unless the price of milk and eggs skyrocket, but what are the chances of that?
