Key limes and Key lime pie are part of what makes Key West one of the most unique food cities in America. Your Key lime pie should always be yellow, never green. true Key lime pie is made with only 100 percent Key lime juice, not Persian limes and certainly not lime green Jello pudding mix. Some pies are baked and some are not, some prefer graham cracker crusts and some a pastry crust. There are variations on the theme, of course. Key limes are not native to the US, but are thought to have arrived by way of north Africa and the Middle East.Īnd although they're plentiful in south Florida, most of the ones you'll find in the US are grown in Mexico, and Central and South America.
They have more seeds than Persian limes, and the juice is more tart and aromatic.
Key limes are smaller than the larger Persian limes traditionally sold in grocery stores. Purists will tell you there are three basic ingredients they all have in common: 1) sweetened condensed milk, 2) 100 percent key lime juice, and 3) a good graham cracker crust. If you’ve never had Key Lime pie you might wonder what makes it so special, and to that question you’ll get more than one opinion.
