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Key Lime Pie; Photo by Miss Shari/Flickr (Noncommercial Use Permitted with Attribution/No Derivative Works).
Official State Pie of Florida
Key lime pie was designated the official state pie of Florida in 2006. All State Foods
Key limes are smaller and more perishable, but also more tart and aromatic than the common Persian limes seen year-round in most U.S. grocery stores.
Key lime pie is a dessert made from the juice of Key limes (naturalized throughout the Florida Keys), egg yolks, and canned sweetened condensed milk. The pie is usually topped with golden brown meringue or whipped cream. The filling of Key lime pie is yellow rather than green (the juice of Key limes is pale yellow and of course the egg yolks are yellow as well). Traditional cooks frown on the practice of adding food coloring to give the pie a green color.
Citrus fruit is a major part of Florida's economy and is recognized not only with Key lime pie (the orange is the state fruit, orange juice the state beverage, and orange blossom the state flower). Florida produces the majority of citrus fruit grown in the United States (in 2006, 67 percent of all citrus, 74 percent of oranges, 58 percent of tangerines, and 54 percent of grapefruit came from Florida).
