National Lemon Cream Pie Day Timeline

1992

Bob Hope’s recipe

The iconic 20th-century comedian spent decades entertaining U.S. troops during his USO tours. His recipe for lemon pie, featured in the USO Celebrity Cookbook, is delicious and easy to make. From start to finish, this pie takes about two hours and all the ingredients together cost about $10.

1851

Popularity grows

Following Elizabeth Goodfellow's death, lemon meringue pie enjoyed a few aliases, "iced lemon pie, lemon cream pie and lemon custard pie," as it took its place among classic American desserts, but the confection was essentially the same.

1840s

Presidential pie

Food writer Becky Diamond writes that future President Abraham Lincoln discovered the pie at an Illinois hotel while working as a lawyer. “He liked [the] lemon custard pie so much that he requested that the cook [Nancy Breedlove] write out the recipe for him, and he told her years later that it was the favorite White House dessert."