Welcome to “Eating America,” a weekly cross-country culinary road trip. From New Orleans to Nashville to New York City, we explore America’s unique cuisines and hometown favorites through staff interviews, field notes, and delicious recipes. Read on for a chance to win a copy of our new The Complete Cook’s Country TV Show Cookbook.
Above: Cook’s Country Icebox Key Lime Pie
Mary Watkins had a lime-tinged childhood.
Today she’s a marketing copywriter for America’s Test Kitchen, but back in the ’70s, Mary called Florida home. She moved to Miami Springs at the tender age of six weeks old, kicking off a lifelong love of food. Florida has that effect on people, thanks to the abundant seafood, Cuban seasonings, and Jewish delis.
As a child, Mary wouldn’t touch the huge, prolific, globe-like pink grapefruits that grew in her backyard, but she was drawn to limes. Her grandparents stocked their freezer with popsicles, always lime-flavored, in a fantastic green color that made her mouth water. Her grandmother made lime jello topped with a layer of foam, a childhood favorite Mary hasn’t been able to recreate since.
Her parents made daiquiris when they threw fancy parties, using fresh limes and an old hand-cranked ice crusher. Mary could smell the citrus and rum from across the house. At 12 years old, she raided the liquor cabinet and baked a Rum Daiquiri Pie she’d been itching to try ever since she saw the recipe in a magazine. Her mother wouldn’t give her more than a bite of the finished product, but Mary adored the tartness of citrus in a sweet dessert.
That’s when she discovered custard pie.
Above: Cook’s Country Reduced-Fat Icebox Key Lime Pie
For the Watkins family, authentic Key Lime Pie was reserved for eating out. Mary tried her first slice at The Rusty Pelican, a swanky restaurant on the water where they celebrated birthdays and special occasions. She loved the crust—sweet, flaky, crisp, a perfect balance to the tart custard. The tuft of whipped cream that fell oh-so-slowly off the edge. This pie was perfection. Was it obsession at first bite? Maybe.
Once, at 14 years old, she reached over the plastic sneeze guard at a salad bar to grab a plate of Key Lime Pie on display. She dove in with a fork, only to realize too late that the pie was made of wax, to her family’s amusement and her total mortification. Even so, she jokes, “I’ve never had a bad slice.”
Key Lime Pie inspires heated opinion. Graham cracker crust or pastry? Baked or uncooked custard? Meringue, whipped cream, or left untopped? These serious questions date back to the late 19th century, when Key West sponge fishermen created the condensed milk-based pie, an instant success because it didn’t require fresh milk or refrigeration. In 2006 the dessert became Florida’s official state pie, and the debates over the “best version” continue today.
Key Lime Pie enthusiasts can agree on a few things, though. The pie should feature Key Limes, which are smaller, tarter, and more aromatic than traditional limes. These citrusy gems are coveted for their unique floral flavor and yellow-hued juice.
It can be a tricky ingredient to find outside Florida. Mary’s now lived in New England longer than Miami. But she still eats her sister’s signature Key Lime Pie at family gatherings, Thanksgivings, and Christmases, and she’s still a Floridian at heart. All it takes is a sip of lime-flavored seltzer, the faintest whiff of citrus, to bring her back to Miami Springs.
Above: Cook’s Country Key Lime Icebox Cheesecake
All featured recipes in this post will be free through September 30, 2012.
This Week’s Comment Contest Giveaway – What regional pie did you grow up with? Let us know in the comments for a chance to win a copy of The Complete Cook’s Country TV Show Cookbook, which includes more than 200 great American recipes like Mile-High Lemon Meringue Pie and Chocolate Blackout Cake.
About the Author: Elissa Bernstein
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Although I adore a key lime pie, my very favorite was my mother’s rhubarb pie, which was essentially a double crust custard pie with plenty of rhubarb, cinnamon and nutmeg….warm from the oven with vanilla ice cream…..nothing beats it. And please don’t ruin it with strawberries.
Pecan pie, the only pie!
Sweet Potato Pie! Being from south Louisiana, we are surrounded by sweet potato and sugar cane fields. Combine the two and yum, yum, yum!
Chocolate pecan pie with a touch of bourbon
Apple Pie which I dearly love to this day, but my very favorite pie, that I always requested my mom make for my birthday, was Lemon Meringue. I do love a good slice of Key Lime pie. I make really good Key Lime dessert squares that I usually keep individually wrapped and stored in the freezer for unexpected guests or that special occasion. Always gets rave reviews!
Every September brought apple pie, the recipe never written down. One year, we hit it just right, and every year after, we’d talk of how the pie inevitable fell short of the legendary success of years before.
I grew up with a fabulous Dutch Apple Pie (from Pennsylvania Dutch country) but I think custard pies are my new favorite.
I grew up with my grandmothers recipe of Pecan pie. The bonus when she made it was the pecans were from her backyard!
My family would drive an hour and a half to go berry picking. If we had enough berries left by the time we made it home, my mom would bake a blueberry pie. So good!
Being from Louisiana, pecan pie was THE pie!
We would always get fresh blueberries from the wetland part of our property and have wonderful blueberry pies. An unlimited amount of blueberries and some lemon made a very flavorful pie.
Chocolate is my kind of pie. Recently I’m hooked on this upgraded super fast version: pre-made pie crust + a jar of Nutella + Cool Whip. You can have a decadent pie in 2 hours!
My German Grandmother made the best pies. Even though my family has been in the Bakery business for over 100 years in the Cleveland, Ohio area, we all loved her sour cherry (picked from the tree in the yard) pies, fresh apple pies and fresh rhubarb pies. She knew all the secrets to the best crust and those pies were OH SO GOOD! Rest in Peace Grossmutter.
The only pie that I would eat growing up was Sweet Potato Pie. It was a special treat during the holiday season, I didn’t taste pumpkin until I left college. Sweet Potato Pie is a simple and inexpensive desert that could be made quickly or my Mom would make filling in advance so we could always have pie.
Growing up in the Nutmeg state surrounded by mostly macintosh apples, apple pie ruled our holiday dessert table. Double crust, hot and preferrably a’la mode!
My family has had an apple orchard going back several generations. Almost every autumn means apple pie. Dutch, crumb topped, two-crusted, French…every style imaginable. They were always served with vanilla ice cream. I smile because no matter what elaborate dessert making skills I try to show off, I always take second place to my mom’s apple pie.
i’m in northern california. not sure if we have a regional pie, but i grew up with fresh peach pie every summer. once i ordered peach pie at a restaurant assuming it would be fresh peaches and was super disappointed at what i was served. never made that mistake again!
Shoofly pie is one of my favorites.
Growing up in South Florida and a native of Cuba I became a Foodie the moment I landed in the USA. I came when I was six years old and fell in love with the foods in my school cafeteria. I remember to this day tasting the Key Lime Pie at the Westward Ho Restaurant in Westchester, Florida. Wow! I will forever be a Key Lime Pie Lover! thank you for the new recipes.
Sweet Potato Pie!
While I loved my mother’s chocolate pie and lemon meringue pie, for me the traditional pie has to be pecan. It is totally necessary for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
My family is from the north, and we grew up with lots of pecan pie!
I grew up in Ohio and Virginia as a kid. In VA, the regional pie is definitely apple which is my favorite pie to make and eat! I love pretty much all pies, but after reading these comments, I realize that I need to try rhubarb pie! I’m so glad that fall is here so I have a better excuse to make pies!
Good old fashioned Apple Pie! mMm…
My great-grandmother (born 1905) always made a shamelessly tart lemon pie. It was impossible to get the recipe out of her.