Pies of the Past
From the traditional apple pie at Fourth of July picnics to the familiar sight of pumpkin pie on the Thanksgiving table, this delectable dessert pastry is a popular part of American culture. But it didn’t get its start here. According to the American Pie Council, the earliest iterations of pie were likely found in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Italy. The first published pie recipe – for a “rye-crusted goat cheese and honey pie” – is credited to the Romans. By the time they’d made their way to England in the twelfth century, they were primarily savory meat “pyes.” Fruit pies didn’t become the fashion until the 1500s, with Queen Elizabeth I acknowledged as the inspiration for the world’s first cherry pie.
Pies purportedly hopped the pond along with the earliest English settlers. They were not baked in round tins as they are today but in long, narrow pans called coffins. By the time the American Revolution rolled around, pie crust had become the more popular term – with everything from chicken and vegetables to mincemeat to apples being baked within those flaky layers.
