Most of us know what we like when it comes to
the most traditional American dessert. When we devour a slice of pie, do we
ever stop to think what qualifies as a pie in the first place? A pie is a baked dish which is made of pastry dough that contains fillings of either
sweet or savory ingredients. Sweet pies may
be filled with fruit (apple pie), nuts (pecan pie), brown sugar (sugar pie) or sweetened vegetables (rhubarb pie).
Savory pies may be filled with meat (steak pie), eggs and cheese (quiche) or a mixture of meat and vegetables
(pot pie). Pies can be a variety of sizes,
ranging from bite-size to ones designed for multiple servings. Learning more
about the history of pie can help us appreciate it that much more. Here are a
few things you probably didn’t know about the history of one of the world’s
favorite baked desserts:
The first pies appeared around 9500 BC in the Egyptian Neolithic period. Early pies were known as galettes, which was honey inside a wrapping of ground oats, wheat, rye, or barley. These galettes developed into a form of early sweet pastry or desserts, evidence of which can be found on the tomb walls of the Pharaoh Ramesses II. Sometime before 2000 BC, a recipe for chicken pie was written on a tablet in Sumer. The first pie recipe was published by the Romans (who may have learned about it from the Greeks), and was for a rye-crusted goat cheese and honey pie, which were sometimes made in reeds.
In the 12th century in England, song birds were a fine delicacy, and protected by Royal Law. At the coronation of eight-year old English King Henry VI in 1429, partridge and peacock pie was served, consisting of cooked peacock mounted in its skin on a peacock filled pie. Cooked birds were frequently placed by European royal cooks on top of a large pie to identify its contents, leading to its later adaptation in pre-Victorian times as a porcelain ornament to release of steam and identify a good pie.
The first recorded apple pie recipe dates
back to 1381, and was written in England. The term “as easy as pie” is an
American expression. In the 1890’s, “pie” was a common slang expression meaning
anything easy, a cinch, and the expression “easy as pie” stemmed from that. Early
pies were predominately meat, and originally appeared in England as early as
the twelfth century. The crust of the pie was referred to as a coffyn with more
crust than filling. Fruit pies or tarts (pasties) were probably first made in
the 1500s. English tradition credits making the first cherry pie to Queen
Elizabeth I.
The Pilgrims and early settlers brought their pie recipes with them to North America adapting to the ingredients and techniques available to them in the New World. Their first pies were based on berries and fruits pointed out to them by the Native North Americans. Pies allowed colonial cooks to stretch abundant ingredients while also allowing them to utilize round shallow pans to literally cut corners, and create a regional variation of shallow pie.
In the 1700s, pioneer women often served pies
with every meal, which firmly connected this pastry into a unique form of
American culture. The early colonists cooked their pies in long narrow pans
calling them coffyns like the crust in England. It was during the American
Revolution that the term crust was used instead of coffyn.
Since pastry was a staple ingredient in
medieval menus, pastry making was taken for granted by the majority of early
cookbooks, and recipes were not usually included in them. Originally, a pie’s
shell was intended simply to store and serve what was inside, and was
later thrown away. Almost every baked meal was a pie as a result. It wasn’t
until the 16th century that cookbooks with pastry ingredients began appearing.
Historians believe this was because cookbooks started appearing for the general
household, and not just for professional cooks.
In the 19th century, Emperor William I of
Germany visited Queen Victoria of England. When he did, his favorite pie was
served. It was quite big. It contained a whole turkey stuffed with a chicken,
the chicken stuffed with a pheasant, the pheasant stuffed with a woodcock.
There’s a pie for everyone. If you’re looking
to expand your pie range, here are unique types you may want to try. A buko pie
is a traditional Filipino young-coconut custard pie. A homity pie is a
traditional British vegetable pie made with potatoes, onions, leeks, and
cheese. A flapper pie is a Canadian custard pie topped with meringue.
A fleischkuekle is a meat pie similar to
a Cornish pasty that is popular in the Dakotas. A stargazy pie is a
Cornish dish made of baked pilchards or sardines, eggs, and potatoes. The
unique feature of a stargazy pie is the fish heads protruding through the crust
such that they appear to be looking skyward.
“If you think of life as like a
big pie, you can try to hold the whole pie and kill yourself trying to keep it,
or you can slice it up and give some to the people around you, and you still
have plenty left for yourself.” (Jay Leno) [i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“10
Fun Facts about… Pie!” by S.O.S
·
“Five
things you didn’t know about the history of pie” by Grand Traverse Pie Company
·
“History of Pies” by American Pie Council
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