This Classic Southern Lemon Pie Gets Crunch—and Charm—From a Saltine Crust

Citrus desserts are wildly popular, yet they still manage to spark fierce debate—entire Reddit threads are devoted to people airing their grievances about the tart sweets. For fans, though, that bright, puckery punch is exactly the point. One standout in the citrus dessert canon is Bill Smith's Atlantic Beach pie, a lemon custard pie with a saltine cracker crust that's earned a devoted following.

Along the North Carolina coast, many seafood restaurants serve some version of "lemon pie," but Bill Smith's take—developed at Crook's Corner, a landmark Southern restaurant in Chapel Hill known for its regional classics and inventive takes on heirloom dishes—has achieved outsized popularity. Originally created for a Southern Foodways Alliance field trip through eastern North Carolina in June 2012, the pie gained national attention after Katie Workman raved about it on NPR’s All Things Considered in April 2013. The famed pie remained on the menu until the restaurant closed in the summer of 2021.

"When we were growing up, we were told that you shouldn’t have desserts after seafood because you’d be sick," Smith told Tom Maxwell in |an in-depth interview with Tom Maxwell for The Bitter Southerner. "You just believed it because your grandmother told you. We were Catholic, so we had seafood every Friday, so we never had any dessert. The one exception was citrus. You could have lemon, so all the restaurants—this was like a folkloric thing all along eastern North Carolina—all the seafood restaurants along the coast had these lemon pies because that was okay to eat. They varied from place to place, but they had a cracker crust."

Bill Smith's Atlantic Beach Pie

For Smith's pie, a bright, stir-together custard bakes in a crust made from crushed saltine crackers, layered with whipped cream, and sprinkled with flaky salt. It balances sweet, salty, and tart elements with remarkable ease. Nearly every internet recipe for this pie is a near-exact replica of Smith's: saltine cracker crust, four egg yolks, one can of sweetened condensed milk, and half a cup of lemon or lime juice (or a combination of both), all topped with whipped cream. And rightly so—this "stupid pie" (his words, not mine) is one of the best and easiest pies I've ever made. 

But Smith’s own cookbook, Seasoned in the South, features a slightly different version, with a homemade egg yolk custard baked in a Ritz cracker crust and topped with meringue made from the reserved whites. That contrast raises questions: Why the shift? Was the viral version a simplification? And what's with the different crackers?

All About the Cracker Crust

The standout feature of this recipe is its crisp, salty cracker crust. While crackers had long appeared in pies—most notably in mock apple pies dating back to the 19th century—the idea of using them for crusts didn’t take hold until the mid-20th century. During the Great Depression and World War II, Ritz crackers gained popularity as a resourceful substitute for apples, their buttery texture approximating cooked fruit when softened in lemon-vanilla syrup.

As food writer John T. Edge explains in Apple Pie: An American Story, the cracker-filled version was “something fun and quirky,” its substitution “a cheeky delight” rather than purely a sign of scarcity. Recipes for mock apple pie appeared in 19th-century Southern cookbooks like What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking and The Confederate Receipt Book, and by 1934, Nabisco began printing a version on Ritz boxes—a practice that continued into the early 1990s. As convenience foods rose in popularity, so did the idea of crusts designed not just to contain a filling, but to complement it. By the 1950s, newspaper recipes were touting saltine pie shells filled with chiffon or cream fillings, with headlines declaring, “There Is No Dough in These Pie Crusts.”

Bill Smith explains in his Bitter Southerner interview: "Some people used Captain’s Wafers. Some people used saltines. Some people used Ritz crackers. It was a tug-of-war about what was the best." This variety shows up even in Smith's own versions of the recipe—when he first developed the pie, he used saltines, but in his cookbook, he opted for Ritz crackers. The most widely shared version of the recipe today reflects the original saltines-based crust.

I stayed close to pie's origin, using saltine crackers for their distinct salty edge, which sharpens the tartness of the lemon curd rather than dulling it. Crumbling the saltines by hand in a bowl proved just as effective as using a food processor—with less cleanup. After mixing in melted butter and sugar (also by hand, which helped break up any lingering chunks), the mixture resembled a coarser graham cracker crust. I pressed it into a metal pie plate to form a thick, even crust and baked it until it was golden brown.

For an Even Better Filling, Don't Separate the Eggs

As for the filling, Atlantic Beach pie takes a slightly different path from lemon meringue pie. While the custard in lemon meringue pie is traditionally thickened with egg yolks (reserving the whites for the topping), this pie nods to its Southern cousin, key lime pie, which relies on a different pantry staple: sweetened condensed milk. This ingredient combines sugar and dairy in one, and when mixed with egg yolks and citrus juice, the acidity helps denature the proteins in the eggs and set the filling—no tempering required. Here, lemon juice replaces lime, and to ensure the custard slices cleanly, the pie gets a brief bake before chilling.

I decided to use whole eggs in the filling, which resulted in a lighter, firmer texture; using only yolks produced a richer but looser custard. The egg whites bring extra protein for the milk to bind to, helping the filling set more firmly. To offset the loss of fat—yolks add richness and flavor—I supplemented with a little heavy cream, knowing I'd use more of it for the topping.

To enhance the lemon flavor without making the pie too sour, I added a generous one tablespoon of lemon zest to the filling. The custard goes directly into the prepared crust—no need to cool it first—then the pie is baked just until the edges are set and the center still wobbles slightly. It will continue to firm up fully as it cools.

The Billowy Topping

At Crook's Corner, Smith topped his pie with fresh whipped cream. I was inspired to do the same. Not needing to reserve egg whites for a meringue topping is what first prompted me to test a version of the filling made with whole eggs in the first place. As an added benefit, since meringues tend to weep over time, making the filling watery and the crust soggy, a simple whipped cream topping eliminates this problem. In fact, whipped cream can be spread on the pie a day or two ahead. Although I prefer to top it just before serving to preserve the dramatic appearance of the cloud-like cream. 

To finish the pie, a sprinkle of flaky sea salt ties the whole pie back to the salty cracker crust and pays homage to the fresh salt air from the Atlantic Ocean. For all the lemon heads out there, this version of Atlantic Beach pie is the kind of dessert you'll rave about to friends. Tart and creamy, with a saltine cracker crust that's bound to spark conversation—it's sure to leave a lasting impression.