Recipe: Lemon Custard Pie a favorite of Abraham Lincoln (1913)

LEMON CUSTARD PIE
a favorite of Abraham Lincoln

"Mrs. Breedlove tells, for the first time, the famous recipe.

Today in celebrating the fiftieth anniversary (11-19-1913) of the deliverance by Abraham Lincoln of his immortal Gettysburg address, Mrs. Nancy Breedlove, 80, gives a Lincoln party at her home in Owosso, Mich., at which the piece de resistance will be lemon-custard pie -- the kind she used to bake for Abraham Lincoln and the recipe for which was always followed by White House chefs after the great man ascended to the presidency!

Mrs. Breedlove kept a hotel in Illinois in her younger days and "Honest Abe", as they called Lincoln then, stayed there weeks at a time, when engaged in court trials. He liked Mrs. Breedloves's lemon-custard pie so well that shed had to write out the recipe for him and he told her, years after, that it was the favorite White House dessert. Here's the recipe, written out especially for you by Nancy Breedlove herself -- and never before printed:"

LEMON--CUSTARD PIE

2/3 cup water
1 teacup of sugar
3 or 4 egg yolks
grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoonful of cornstarch
1 pie shell pastry
3 or 4 egg whites beaten stiff
3 tablespoonsful sugar

"Two-thirds of a cup of water, one teacup of sugar, the yolk of three or four eggs; grated rind and juice of one lemon; one tablespoonful of cornstarch; fill a pie shell and bake in a hot oven.

Beat up the whites of the eggs separately to a stiff froth, mix in three tablespoonsful of sugar and spread over pie. Bake to a nice brown."

Source: Milwaukee Journal, Wed, Nov 19, 1913