Key Lime Pie Has A Super Weird Origin Story (Hint: It Doesn’t Have Anything To Do With Florida)

Key lime pie has always been a little surprising. Personally, I remember two separate occasions when I unknowingly grabbed a slice at my college’s cafeteria, thinking it was some other type of chiffon pie. Nope. While it has a good flavor, it’s shocking if you’re not expecting notes of lime. The fact that it fooled me twice is my mistake. (Just know that it was still eaten both times.)

It turns out that key lime pie has also been fooling us all along with its origin. With a name like key lime pie, you probably assume it was concocted in the Florida Keys. Again, that’s another nope.

The truth was unveiled in a cookbook called BraveTart: Iconic American Desserts, which was written by Stella Parks. In it, Parks credits a milk company for creating the iconic pie. And no, that company wasn’t based in Florida. The recipe reportedly came from the test kitchen at New York City’s Borden milk company. Say what now?

Pie fans everywhere are trying to prove Parks wrong. David Sloan, who actually wrote a cookbook about key lime pie, put out a call to other bakers and chefs to try to find earlier recipes.

His determination to disprove the milk company theory is actually impressive. It’s hard to deny someone who literally wrote a book called The Key West Key Lime Pie Cookbook. 

This further adds to the mystery. Was it a baker named Aunt Sally who created key lime pie, as Sloan mentioned in his public post? Or is Parks correct in stating that the first recipe originated in New York?

Even if residents from Florida can no longer take credit for the pie, they should be happy that it was possibly inspired by their beautiful state.

Is lime an ingredient that has a special place in your heart? We can relate, which is why we created these two lime-tastic summer desserts.

Who doesn’t love the taste of summertime?