It's a Great Pie!

I have made an annual goal to enjoy one piece of key lime pie each year.  Whenever I do, I seem to find a article or hear a news blurb within days telling me how unhealthy it is.  I finally decided to do a little research to better understand the history and use of ingredients in the key lime pie.

I have always assumed several things about key lime pie.  First, I assumed that it should be very green in color because it made with limes.  That was my first error.  A very green pie is filled with green food coloring.  While key limes, a citrus hybrid, may be picked when they are green, they are a pale yellow when they are ripe.  The color of the pie, sans food coloring, should be a pale yellow.

Assumption #2 - Key lime pie was created in Florida.  Legend actually places the development of this pie in either the Florida Keys or in sponge boats off the coast of one of the many islands.  Either way, the State of Florida gets bragging rights.

There is controversy, however,  about who first created the key lime pie....both have their origins in practicality and are based on the proximity of essential ingredients to the final creation.  One version of the story attributes the recipe to a Key West millionaire's cook called Aunt Sally.  An alternative account gives sponge fisherman around Key West credit.  In either story, it was discovered that mixing Key lime juice and canned sweetened condensed milk with egg yolks resulted in something tasty.  A Nabisco cracker, called Uneeda (introduced in 1898) was the likely based for the egg mixture, although experimentation could have included the use of graham crackers as the base.  The milk and some type of crackers were pantry or ship larder staples, transported in by ship and stored, and the limes and eggs were regionally available.  The combination of these four ingredients produced much appreciated results.  To this day, however, no one knows the last name of Aunt Sally.

There is still a debate about whether meringue or whipped cream should top the lime/condensed milk mixture.  One school of thought believes that Aunt Sally was familiar with the recipes for lemon meringue pie, but did not have the essential ingredients to make the lemon pie, so experimented with available ingredients.  This is the school that supports meringue as the original topping.

The other school of thought believes that spongers out on boats did not have fresh milk to make cream, so whipped up a coconut version to top the lime/condensed milk blend.

As a result, the modern pie maker can choose to top or not top, and if topping, choose meringue or a whipped milk of some kind.

So, is it healthy?  Citrus is a "go" with all of that good vitamin C.  Eggs are no longer in the condemned   category like they were several years ago.  For any crust that is used, it depends on where you stand with wheat products - probably better if you don't eat the crust or make the pie without a crust.....which leaves the canned, sweetened, condensed milk - that's probably the "bad" ingredient - too much sugar!  All in all, probably not very good for you, but it can readily fall into the category of ".....all things in moderation...."  Right?