Jessie's Key Lime Pie

[Forney]

Jessie's Key Lime Pie
5 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup Key Lime juice
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup sugar (for meringue)
1 9" baked pie shell
Separate eggs into three bowls - 5 yolks in one bowl, 2 egg whites in another, and 3 egg whites in the third. This is the most important step in the whole operation!!! Cream egg yolks, add 3/4-cup sugar and limejuice and mix thoroughly. Cook over low heat until thick, add butter and remove from heat. Let cool slightly. Meanwhile beat two egg whites until stiff, and then fold into cooled lime mixture. Fill pie shell. Beat other whites until stiff. Beat in 1/4-cup sugar. Pile meringue on top of lime filling and bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes.
From the hospice nurse who posted the recipe several years ago:
I treated a young man from Key West, Florida who was dying of AIDS. A couple of weeks before he died, he gave me his 75 year old family recipe for Key Lime Pie. He explained that most Key Lime Pie recipes use condensed milk. Even restaurants in Key West serve Key Lime Pie made with condensed milk. Jessie was disdainful of this version. His family recipe, passed from generation to generation, does not used condensed milk. Jessie claimed it is the only authentic Key Lime Pie recipe. So in memory of Jessie, I offer it to you.

[Carol7368]

What a sweet thing to do in memory of Jessie - I have never heard of a Key Lime Pie made any other way except with condensed milk. I cannot wait to make this and taste the difference. Thank you for posting this and sharing a very special memory...... Carol

[kitchenelf]

What a wonderful story. I can't wait to make this for my husband. He loves key lime pie (of course I do too) and I bet he is going to love this!! Thank you so much for posting it. What a treat!!!!!!