* * * * *
                                        
                In search of … the original Key Lime Pie recipe
                                        
> It was while investigating reports of a ghost in the lavish mansion built
> by William "Bill Money" Curry in 1855 that Sloan encountered the original
> recipe for Key lime pie. "I heard movement on the floor above," he said,
> "but what stopped me cold was the recipe I saw in the pantry, the recipe
> for 'Aunt Sally's Key Lime Pie.'"
> 
> Sloan's early pie education came flooding back: "Most sources credit an
> anonymous 'Aunt Sally' with inventing Key lime pie. Well, it turns out that
> Aunt Sally was the cook at the Curry Mansion and as soon as I saw that
> paper, my heart started racing and I started to shake. I knew, I just knew.
> it was like finding the Golden Fleece, the Holy Grail."
> 
> Almost every family in Florida has a recipe for Key lime pie and they all
> claim it's the only authentic version. The filling is rarely disputed:
> Everyone agrees that green food coloring is for dry-landers and that a
> proper version is pale yellow. Rather, most debates revolve around the
> other two variables, crust and topping.
> 
> Battle lines in the crust camp are drawn between traditional pastry crust
> and graham cracker crust. The topping dissension is equally binary. Some
> believe that a lime pie can only be considered "Key" if modeling a lofty
> bonnet of meringue. Others argue that a slice of any self-respecting Key
> lime pie always sports a rakish dollop of whipped cream, preferably one
> that falls off to the side á la a French beret.
> 
> …
> 
> "There is no cream in the filling," he said. "There was never any cream.
> This pie was invented to use condensed milk. William Curry made his fortune
> in hardware. He provisioned ships. He brought the first condensed milk to
> the Keys not long after Gail Borden invented it in 1856."
> 

“The Curious Case of Key Lime Pie | Epicurious.com [1]”

Having lived in Florida for thirty-six years, I have learned that Key Lime
Pie is pale yellow in color. I did not know that it originally used condensed
milk (and it's odd to think that condensed milk [2] has been available for
160 years!). I also did not know that Key limes [3] are yellow, not green.

[1] http://www.epicurious.com/archive/seasonalcooking/winter/key-lime-
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condensed_milk
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_lime

Email Sean Conner at sean@conman.org

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