National Lemon Meringue Pie Day

The story

The lemon meringue pie, often hailed as “baked sunshine” and rumored to be Abraham Lincoln's favorite White House Dessert, is a visually stunning treat with golden meringue peaks crowning a lemon custard filling within a shortcrust pastry. Its origin, however, remains shrouded in mystery, with three potential creators: Alexander Frehse, a Swiss baker; Emile Campbell-Browne, an English botanist; and Elizabeth Goodfellow, an American pastry chef from Philadelphia. While little evidence connects Frehse and Campbell-Browne to the lemon meringue pie, Elizabeth Goodfellow stands out with solid support for her role. Operating a renowned bakery in Philadelphia from 1801 to 1851, Goodfellow's access to ingredients, including lemons, allowed her to create a signature lemon pudding in the 1820s. This pudding, a rare delicacy at the time, eventually became the filling for her lemon meringue pie. Goodfellow's culinary influence extended beyond her bakery, as she opened one of the first cooking schools in the U.S., passing on her knowledge to well-to-do Philadelphian families for three decades. Although she never published her recipes, her pupil Eliza Leslie, an accomplished cookbook author, credited Goodfellow in her works. Interestingly, historical records do not mention the addition of the classic meringue topping to Goodfellow's lemon pie, introducing a twist to the narrative of this iconic dessert's creation.