[dropcap1]Q. [/dropcap1] My wife used to have Warren Leruth's recipe for pecan pie. She says I lost it. I don't bake, so I know I didn't. But because I am on the sofa until the recipe is found, I'm putting the monkey on your back. Mine is killing me! [dropcap1]A. [/dropcap1]I get a lot of requests for recipes from restaurants that closed long ago. For some reason, they're the same ones: Jim's fried chicken, Wise Cafeteria's eggplant casserole, the almond torte at Masson's, and about a dozen more. Most of these are in our recipe index. But out of sympathy for a fellow husband--and because this is a frequently asked-for recipe--here it is. Warren Leruth didn't publish many of his recipes, and fewer still were for dishes he served at the restaurant. The pecan pie was one of the "back door" recipes in his Front Door, Back Door cookbook, a little collection he put out in the 1970s. It's pretty simple, but Warren was a serious baker, and it comes out great--although I add one more egg yolk to the mix, for insurance against the center of the pie's not setting. 3 eggs 3/4 cup sugar 1 tsp. vanilla 1 cup white Karo syrup 1/2 stick butter, melted 1 cup pecans 1 nine-inch unbaked pie shell Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 1. Mix eggs, sugar and syrup thoroughly. Then stir in melted butter and vanilla. Finally, stir in the pecans. Pour the mixture into the pie shell. 2. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes. Cool for a half hour or more before serving.
