What is the history of key lime pie?
Certainly, such a popular pie would have much available in the way of history. Not! Food historians confirm the popularity of limes (a gift from 16th century Spanish explorers), presence of pies (an “Old World” recipe), and eager acceptance of condensed milk (mid-19th century). Presumably, the “inspiration” for Key Lime pie is Lemon meringue. “According to John Egerton (Southern Food, 1987), Key Lime Pie was known in the Florida Keys “as far back as the 1890s.” It don’t doubt it a bit because in those pre-refrigerator days, fresh milk was a poor keeper. What local cooks had learned to rely on was the sweetened condensed milk Gail Borden had begun canning shortly before the Civil War.” —The American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 377) [NOTE: This book has a recipe for Key Lime Pie.] “Key lime pies were first made in the Keys in the 1850s. Jean A. Voltz, in The Flavor of the South (1977), explains that t
