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Mrs. Butters Key Lime Pie Secret Recipe

“Frozen Key Lime Pie Recipe?” Fern Butters asked. “Girl, I’ll take that secret with me to the grave.”

Fern Butters frozen key lime pie was a legend. Every time President Harry S. Truman passed through Islamorada on Upper Matecumbe Key on his way to the “Little White House” in Key West, he would stop. More specifically, he
I stopped by the Fern Inn to pick up some Fern Butters frozen key lime pie.

And so did other people, commoners and dignitaries alike: Papa Hemingway, Cordell Hull, Douglas Fairbanks, Julia Child. And me.

I didn’t see any of those famous people. Except Julia Child. And I didn’t know who she was. Ignorance of youth.

But I ate Mrs. Butters’ frozen key lime pie.

I was not a child when I asked about the recipe. I had recipes for my grandmother’s pressed fruit cake. And my grandfather’s elderberry wine. And a pass from others he had picked up from near and far. So I thought his recipe would fit right in with my collection.

not so I was a young pastor in his little church in Matecumbe. But it could have been Gabriel himself.

And I could never get that well-kept secret.

Many had tried to replicate his recipe, but without success. I once saw Julia Child try to coax the Fern Butters recipe to no avail. I heard that she tied to double the recipe, again, to no avail.

Of course, that may just be a legend. It’s believable. Everyone who’s ever had their frozen key lime pie coveted the recipe.

Well, Fern is dead now. The Fern Inn has changed its name. Fern took the recipe to her grave with her.

But, recently his daughter called me. She said that after all these years she was going through her mother’s letters and stuff and trying to clean out an old dresser drawer full of old letters and notes.

He found an envelope with my name on it. He wanted to know if I was the same preacher who served in the little church in Matecumbe.

This was a strange event. I had moved to Wisconsin serving the churches there for several years. When I returned to South Florida, I was a professor at a university for 33 years. I dropped out of college and served a church in North Miami Beach for 13 years. I withdrew again. He then answered a desperate call to serve as a chaplain in a retirement community. I was in the area where Fern Butters’ daughter could contact me.

He feels the envelope, now yellow with age. Fern had been dead for some 40 years or more. I opened the envelope. The note said:

This is what you asked for. Use it wisely.

And there was the recipe!

Now I have wondered what to do with this recipe. You could, of course, just post it. Or I could write a book about my days as a young herder among the Keys Conchs, as they called themselves. I might even sell it [How long would that last!?]

But I have decided to give it away. I’m not even going to take the recipients to the secret. I will only give it to people who love unusual recipes and historical recipes. I have a friend from North Carolina, for example, whose family has a pumpkin soup recipe handed down from pioneer days.

And then there’s my friend from Ladies Island in Beaufort County, South Carolina. She claims that her ancestors created Frogmore Stew.

There’s an aunt in western Maryland who says she’ll give me the recipe for “Puddin'”, a meat product that is out of this world when used in pancakes. I have no idea what the ingredients are, but I’m looking forward to finding out.

People who are interested in these types of recipes and willing to share their own favorite recipes are invited to subscribe to the COOKIN’ GOOD NEWSLETTER free of charge at http://www.cookin-good.com/.

Subscribers will not only receive a copy of the Fern Butters Frozen Key Lime Pie recipe, they will also receive a monthly edition of the newsletter at no cost. Everyone is invited to submit their own unique recipes.

And invite your friends to subscribe. They will love you for telling them.

But for those who are just curious about the recipe, for those who don’t want to visit the website, for those who don’t mind missing out on all the wonderful features found in the Cookin’ Good Gazette, here’s the recipe.

With the secret ingredient of Fern [forgive me, Fern!].

Mrs. The Secret of the Butters

key lime pie recipe

Ingredients

1 cup sweetened condensed milk

6 egg yolks [save whites]

½ cup lime juice [genuine key lime]

6 egg whites [I told you to save them!]

1 tablespoon cream of tartar

1 cup of sugar

1 graham cracker pie crust [preferred-regular crust permissible]

½ pint secret ingredient

Procedure

Stuffed

Add the yolks to the condensed milk and beat for 8 minutes

Add the secret ingredient and beat until well blended.

Add lime juice and mix well.

Fold in the shape of a cake

Place in the freezer until well set. Keep unused portion in the freezer for up to a week. [if it lasts that long!]

Addition

While cake is setting, beat 6 egg whites with cream of tartar for 5 minutes.

Add 1 cup of sugar and beat until meringue forms peaks when whisk is removed from mixture.

Add to top of cake

Brown in the oven at 350° and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or more for a regular pie or in the freezer for an hour for a frozen key lime pie.

Secret ingredients. ½ pint of vanilla soft serve ice cream.

don’t laugh. The addition of this secret ingredient has stumped many a jealous cook and chef, including, as I said, Julia Child. Reveal it and you’ll take the mystery out of your own ability to produce “tested by Harry Truman” frozen key lime pie.

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