“Frozen Key Lime Pie Recipe?” Fern Butters asked. “Daughter, I will take that secret to the grave.”

Fern Butters’ frozen key lime pie was a legend. Every time President Harry S. Truman passed Islamorada on Upper Matecumbe Key on his way to the “Little White House” in Key West, he stopped. More specifically, he

We stopped by the Fern Inn to try Fern Butters’ iced 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 he didn’t know who she was. Ignorance of youth.

But I did eat Mrs. Butters Frozen Key lime pie.

He was not a child when I asked him about the recipe. I had recipes for my grandmother’s compressed fruit cake. And my grandfather’s elderberry wine. And a lot of others that he had collected from near and far. So I thought your recipe would fit perfectly with my collection.

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

And he could never get that closely guarded secret.

Many had tried to replicate his recipe, but without success. I once saw Julia Child try to cajole the Fern Butters recipe to no avail. Heard you tried to duplicate the recipe, again, to no avail.

Of course, that may be just a legend. It is credible. Everyone who has ever eaten 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 the grave with her.

But recently your daughter called me. He said that after all these years he was going through his mother’s letters and other things and trying to clean 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 Matecumbe church.

This was a strange event. I had moved to Wisconsin serving 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 retired again. He then responded to a desperate call to serve as a chaplain in a retirement community. I was in the area where Fern Butters’ daughter could contact me.

I feel the envelope, now yellow with age. Fern had been dead for about forty years. I opened the envelope. The note read:

This is what you asked for. Use it wisely.

And there was the recipe!

Now I wonder what to do with this recipe. Of course, you could post it. Or I could write a book about my days as a young pastor among the Keys Conch, as the people there were called. I could even sell it [How long would that last!?]

But I have decided to give it away. I’m not even going to swear that the recipients will keep the secret. I’m only going to 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. He claims that his ancestors created Frogmore Stew.

An aunt in western Maryland says she will give me the recipe for “Puddin ‘”, an out of this world meat product when used in pancakes. I have no idea what the ingredients are, but I long to know.

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

Subscribers will not only receive a copy of 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 is the recipe.

With Fern’s secret ingredient [forgive me, Fern!].

Ms. Butters secret

Key lime pie recipe

Ingredients

1 cup of 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 of secret ingredient

Process

Stuffed

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

Add the secret ingredient and beat until well mixed.

Add lime juice and mix well.

Fold in the shape of a cake

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

Addition

Meanwhile, beat 6 egg whites with cream of tartar for 5 minutes.

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

Add to the top of the cake

Brown in the oven at 350◦ and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes or more for a normal cake or in the freezer for an hour if it is a frozen lime cake.

Secret ingredient. ½ liter of soft vanilla ice cream.

Do not laugh. The addition of this secret ingredient has stumped many jealous cooks and chefs, including, as I said, Julia Child. Reveal it and you remove the mystery of your own ability to produce the Frozen Key Lime Pie “Tested by Harry Truman.”