Atlantic Beach Pie

 

Lemon and lime flavored pie — how delicious! My friend Paula made a lovely pie for our dinner together, using the recipe from Southern Living Magazine. For the rest of the dinner see "Coq au Vin by Julia Child."

Paula made the crust from Ritz crackers, one of the choices for the cracker-crumb crust of this traditional pie. The filling contains sweetened condensed milk, lime and lemon juice, and other ingredients. (Recipe from Southern Living here).

The pie is delicious, and the story by restaurateur and recipe author Bill Smith is very amusing. He based his pie on a frequently-served dessert in southern seafood restaurants — served for an unexpected reason. Smith wrote:

“When I was growing up in New Bern in the ’50s, people believed as absolute truth that if you ate dessert after a meal of seafood, you would probably die. In the back of my mind, I thought that maybe this rule was just a way to trick me into eating fewer sweets. There was one exception, though: lemon pie.

“If you asked why, you were told something about lemon and fish. Therefore, many seafood restaurants on North Carolina’s coast served Atlantic Beach Lemon Pie, if no other dessert.” (source)

Bill Smith's recipe for Atlantic Beach Pie is now widely famous. The dish is very popular in his restaurant, and has featured in a number of stories on NPR and in online and printed food publications. 

Paula has made the pie a few times, and recently, she made one for Mary and Marty, our other guests. They gave a part of the pie to their son. He was just about to eat a slice of pie. He put it down on a low surface for a moment, turning his back to the pie -- and also not paying close attention to his 11-month old son who was nearby. When he turned around to eat the pie, he saw that his son had speedily climbed up to where it was. The plate was empty. The baby had lemon filling smeared on his face, having eaten up the whole slice. That's how good it is!

Blog post © 2022 mae sander.