Pie in American cuisine has roots in

English cuisine English cuisine encompasses the cooking styles, traditions and recipes associated with England. It has distinctive attributes of its own, but also shares much with wider British cuisine, partly through the importation of ingredients and ideas ...

and has evolved over centuries to adapt to American cultural tastes and ingredients. The creation of flaky pie crust shortened with lard is credited to American innovation.

American cuisine American cuisine consists of the cooking style and traditional dishes prepared in the United States. It has been significantly influenced by Europeans, indigenous Native Americans, Africans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and many other cultures an ...

in the colonial era was simple compared with the more elaborate dishes found in contemporaneous European cuisines. The simplicity of American cuisine, and the American preference for pies, was influenced by the religious culture and general circumstances of the colonial era. As European pies evolved into dainty

tarts A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with ...

, the American "pot pie", cooked over the hearth in a Dutch oven, was generous and filling, reflecting American preferences for simple and hearty meals.

Background

Although borrowed from English cuisine, pies have over generations been adapted by American cooks to the ingredients and culture of the United States.

Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the harsh ...

observed:

The pie is an English institution, which, planted on American soil, forthwith ran rampant and burst forth into an untold variety of genera and species. Not merely the old traditional mince pie, but a thousand strictly American seedlings from that main stock, evinced the power of American housewives to adapt old institutions to new uses. Pumpkin pies, cranberry pies, huckleberry pies, cherry pies, green-currant pies, peach, pear, and plum pies, custard pies, apple pies, Marlborough-pudding pies—pies with top crusts, and pies without—pies adorned with all sorts of fanciful flutings and architectural strips laid across and around, and otherwise varied, attested the boundless fertility of the feminine mind, when once let loose in a given direction.

The creation of flaky pie crust made with lard is credited to American innovation. Early versions of pie were baked in long, narrow pans, then called a "coffyn" instead of crust; these early pastry shells were intended simply to hold the filling, not to be eaten. The term "crust" came into use during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. Tough pie crusts continued to be used to preserve food in the New England climate.

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

once described New England apple pie as follows:

Construct a bullet-proof dough...toughen and kiln-dry it a couple of days...fill with stewed dried apple; aggravate with cloves, lemon peel and slabs of citron; add two portions of New Orleans sugar. Then solder on the lid and set in a safe place till it petrifies. Serve cold at breakfast and invite your enemy.

The pie culture of the United States has been influenced over centuries by ethnic, social, and agricultural changes, and through shifts that have seen the country become more urbanized and industrialized. American food in the colonial era was simple, contrasted with more elaborate counterparts in European cuisine, influenced by the religious culture and general circumstances of the colonial era. Cultural independence from England gained momentum after the war. The 18th-century cookbook ''

American Cookery ''American Cookery'', by Amelia Simmons, is the first known cookbook written by an American, published in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1796. Until then, the cookbooks printed and used in the Thirteen Colonies were British. Its full title is: '' ...

'' mostly contains recipes for meat-based pies: chicken pie, stew pie, mince pie and pies with salt pork. While European pies evolved into dainty

, the American "pot pie", cooked over the hearth in a

Dutch oven A Dutch oven (not to be confused with masonry oven) is a thick-walled cooking pot with a tight-fitting lid. Dutch ovens are usually made of seasoned cast iron; however, some Dutch ovens are instead made of cast aluminium, or ceramic. Some metal ...

, was generous and filling. By the 19th-century fruit pies had become a common

breakfast Breakfast is the first meal of the day usually eaten in the morning. The word in English refers to breaking the fasting period of the previous night.Anderson, Heather Arndt (2013)''Breakfast: A History'' AltaMira Press. Various "typical" or "t ...

food in the United States. According to James E. McWilliams, American cooks "embraced the rough edges of American foodways to foster a pastoral ideal that promoted the frontier values that the colonists had once downplayed". During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

American homemakers were asked to make open-faced "coverless' pies as part of a national strategy to ration wheat and fat.

Types

Custard pies

Butterscotch pie

Butterscotch pie is made by cooking brown sugar with egg yolks, cornstarch, milk or cream and butter to make a butterscotch custard pie filling which is topped with meringue and browned in the oven. Its invention is said to date back to 1904, credited to a creamery in

Connersville, Indiana Connersville is a city in Fayette County, east central Indiana, United States, east by southeast of Indianapolis. The population was 13,481 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of and the largest and only incorporated town in F ...

, where the recipe was published in the 1904 edition of a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

church cookbook.

Buttermilk pie

A 19th-century recipe for

buttermilk pie Buttermilk pie is a pie in American cuisine. Associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States, it is one of the desperation pies, made using simple, staple ingredients. It is similar to, and sometimes confused with, chess pie, but it ...

is made by beating sugar with eggs, then adding butter and buttermilk. The custard is poured into a pastry-lined tin over a layer of thin apple slices. To make a buttermilk lemon pie, eggs, flour and sugar are beaten together, then buttermilk and lemon are added. The filling can be made with egg yolks, and the whites used for a meringue topping. Some versions add raisins, nutmeg, dates or vanilla flavoring. Buttermilk pie can be flavored with lemon or orange zest, the latter garnished with chopped walnuts, currants and cinnamon.

Chess pie

Chess pie Chess pie, also known as Jefferson Davis pie is a dessert with a filling composed mainly of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes milk, characteristic of Southern United States cuisine. It is similar to pecan pie without any nuts. History ...

has been a classic pie of

Southern cuisine The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several regions, including Tidewater, Appalachian, Lowcountry, Cajun, Creole, and Floribbean cuisine. In recent history, elements of Southern cuisine have spread t ...

for centuries. The basic ingredients of butter, sugar and eggs, thickened with either cornmeal or flour, are common to all chess pie recipes. There are variations on the basic recipe that add other ingredients like milk, cream, almonds, lemon zest, vinegar, apples,

damson The damson () or damson plum (''Prunus domestica'' subsp. ''insititia'', or sometimes ''Prunus insititia''),M. H. Porche"Sorting ''Prunus'' names" in "Multilingual multiscript plant names database, University of Melbourne. Plantnames.unimelb.ed ...

preserves, and dried fruits or nuts.

Maple cream pie

A 1939 recipe for

maple cream pie Maple custard pie is a custard pie from the cuisine of New England. Maple custard pies are sweetened only with maple sugar. Each year in New England maple sugar is made with the sap collected from local trees, a New England tradition dating to t ...

is made with

maple sugar Maple sugar is a traditional sweetener in Canada and the northeastern United States, prepared from the sap of the maple tree ("maple sap"). Sources Three species of maple trees in the genus '' Acer'' are predominantly used to produce maple ...

and scalded milk in a double boiler. Cornstarch is added to the sweetened milk to make a thin paste which is poured over beaten eggs, then cooked all together briefly then butter, vanilla and salt are stirred. Once cooled the custard is poured into the pie shell, served topped with whipped cream. Some versions are baked in the oven. In anti-slavery New England William Fox and others advocated for the boycott of sugar from the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

to pressure slaveholders. Maple sugar became a substitute for cane sugar, first advanced by

Benjamin Rush Benjamin Rush (April 19, 1813) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father of the United States who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and a civic leader in Philadelphia, where he was a physician, politician, ...

who published a tract on sugar maples in 1788, and soon after founded the Society for Promoting the Manufacture of Sugar from the Sugar Maple Tree.

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

took up the cause, vowing to use "no other sugar in his family than that which is obtained from the sugar maple tree." He obtained 50 pounds of maple sugar from writing in 1790 to

Benjamin Vaughan Dr Benjamin Vaughan MD FRSE LLD (19 April 1751 – 8 December 1835) was a British political radical. He was a commissioner in the negotiations between Britain and the United States at the drafting of the Treaty of Paris (1783), Treaty of Paris. ...

that high-quality sugar would be obtained from local maples with "no other labor than what the women and girls can bestow ... What a blessing to substitute sugar which requires only the labour of children, for that which it is said renders the slavery of the blacks necessary," but Jefferson's maple grove did not take to the Virginia climate and all the trees died. The tradition of making maple pie, although not as common as it used to be, continues to symbolize New England values of a simple lifestyle and economic independence.

Peanut butter pie

The filling for peanut butter pie can be made with corn syrup or flour and milk. If milk is being used, the filling is made in a double boiler by melting sugar with flour and slowly adding milk, stirring, then adding egg yolks. The peanut butter is added to this prepared mixture, which is allowed to cool, then poured into a pre-baked pastry and served with whipped cream or meringue. Alternately, corn syrup can be mixed with the other ingredients and baked in the oven. Some recipes layer the peanut butter custard filling with a topping of gelatin and whipped egg whites folded into plain custard. Chocolate peanut butter pie is a variation made with a filling of sweetened peanut butter layered into a pie shell made of frozen whipped cream and topped with a chocolate ice cream and whipped cream mixture. This pie is served frozen.

Pecan pie

Pecan pie Pecan pie is a pie of pecan nuts mixed with a filling of eggs, butter, and sugar (typically corn syrup). Variations may include white or brown sugar, cane syrup, sugar syrup, molasses, maple syrup, or honey. It is popularly served at holiday ...

is a classic Southern dessert pie. It was not until the 1930s that pecan pie became very popular, after the recipe was printed on the labels for commercially produced bottles of

corn syrup Corn syrup is a food syrup which is made from the starch of corn (called maize in many countries) and contains varying amounts of sugars: glucose, maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade. Corn syrup is used in foods to softe ...

. Some historians consider this recipe the original, but earlier published recipes for milk-custard pecan pies are known from as early as 1824, such as one found in ''The Virginia Housewife'', and there are syrup-based pecan pie recipes dating to 1921. The Derby pie and Tar heel pie are variations on the classic pecan pie.

Possum pie

Possum pie is an

icebox pie Icebox pies are no-bake pies including ice cream pies, Chiffon pie, chiffon pies, and classic cream pies like key lime pie, lemon ice box pie, chocolate pudding pie, grasshopper pie and banana cream pie. The crust can be a crumb crust or blind bake ...

that is rarely found outside Arkansas. There are many variations of the layered filling usually involving a layer of cream cheese and chocolate pudding in a pecan shortbread pie shell. The version called "The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford" also added a vanilla pudding layer. The whole thing is generously topped with whipped cream and chopped nuts. The first printed recipes calling this dessert "Possum pie" appear in the late 2000s, but similar pies have been known by various names since at least the 1970s, including "The Next Best Thing to Robert Redford".

Pumpkin pie

By the time Amelia Simmons had published ''American Cookery'', the first American cookbook, in 1796, pumpkin pie had evolved into a form similar to the pumpkin pies of the modern day. ''American Cookery'' included two recipes for "pompkin pudding" baked in pie crust. While early pumpkin pies were made like fruit pies with sliced or fried pumpkin combined with spice, sugar and apples in a pastry crust, Simmons' recipe was for a pumpkin custard filling made with sugar, eggs and cream. The custard version of pumpkin pie appears in later cookbooks like ''The Virginia Housewife'' (1824) where it is made with brandy and a lattice-top, and in

Eliza Leslie Eliza Leslie (1787–1858), frequently referred to as Miss Leslie, was an American author of popular cookbooks during the nineteenth century. She also wrote household management books, etiquette books, novels, short stories and articles for magazin ...

's 1827 cookbook where it appears as "pumpkin pudding". The pumpkin pie became a Thanksgiving standard, featured in

Lydia Maria Child Lydia Maria Child ( Francis; February 11, 1802October 20, 1880) was an American abolitionist, women's rights activist, Native American rights activist, novelist, journalist, and opponent of American expansionism. Her journals, both fiction and ...

's 1844 poem ''The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day'':

Over the river, and through the wood— Now grandmother's cap I spy! Hurra for the fun! Is the pudding done? Hurra for the pumpkin pie!

Raisin and sour cream pie

This meringue-topped baked custard pie is made with sugar, egg yolks, sour cream, flour and raisins, baked in a pastry-lined pie dish until the custard filling is set. Some recipes add pecans to the filling, or spices like cinnamon and cloves.

Sweet potato pie

To make the filling for a sweet potato pie sugar, eggs, butter and milk are added to pureed sweet potatoes with a little nutmeg. The ingredients are whipped and baked in an open-faced pie crust. An article from 1903 compared sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie, saying of pumpkin pie "In its way it is very good, particularly if seasonings are put in it to give it the palatableness that it lacks. But we can not admit that the pumpkin pie is equal to the sweet potato pie, when the latter is compounded according to approved antebellum recipes." The article goes on to note the declining popularity of the "old-fashioned" sweet potato pie, attributing it to the increased availability of canned pie fillings and commercially baked pies.

Fruit pies

Apple pie

There are many variations on the basic

apple pie An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. The earliest printed recipe is from England. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream ("apple pie à la mode"), or cheddar cheese. It is generally ...

that may add raisins, dried cranberries, or caramel candies to the filling, or replace the traditional pastry top crust with iced

cinnamon rolls A cinnamon roll (also known as cinnamon bun, cinnamon swirl, cinnamon Danish and cinnamon snail) is a sweet roll commonly served in Northern Europe (mainly in Nordic countries, but also in Austria and Germany) and North America. In Sweden ...

streusel In baking and pastry making, streusel () is a crumbly topping of flour, butter, and sugar that is baked on top of muffins, breads, pies, and cakes.

Blueberry pie

Blueberry pie recipes are known from the mid-19th century, which is later than for other fruits like apple pie. One recipe from 1850 is made with just flour-dredged blueberries and sugar baked in pastry. Wild blueberry pie has been the official state dessert of Maine since 2011.

Blueberry pie Blueberry pie is a pie with a blueberry filling. Blueberry pie is readily made because it does not require pitting or peeling of fruit. It usually has a top and bottom crust. The top crust can be circular, but the pie can also have a crumble cru ...

filling can be made with fresh blueberries, sugar, thickener and lemon or lime juice. Vanilla can also be added. Sugar can be a mix of white and brown sugars, and the filling can be thickened with cornstarch, tapioca flour or all purpose flour. The pie can be made with a basic streusel or crumble topping instead of top crust, to which oats or nuts can be added. To make a blueberry pie with creamy filling, heavy cream can be poured into the pie through the vent hole before serving, or it can be made with shredded coconut and cream cheese. Cranberries, blackberries, orange zest, marshmallows, peaches or basil can be added to the filling. Blueberry pie can be served warm with vanilla ice cream, topped with whipped cream or drizzled with a simple powdered sugar or currant jelly glaze.

Cherry pie

A basic cherry pie can be made by simmering cherry juice with sugar, cornstarch and a pinch of salt in a saucepan until thickened. Once thickened, butter is stirred in, then the mixture is poured over the pitted cherries into a pastry-lined pie dish and baked in a hot oven. Lattice top crust is a common choice for cherry pies. The filling of a cherry pie can be made with fresh, frozen or canned cherries. A variation on the basic filling can be made on the stovetop by simmering canned cherries with water and cherry juice with a mixture of vanilla pudding, sugar and lemon juice. The mixture is boiled then removed from the heat and butter is added. Red food coloring can be used to give the pie a more intense red color. This filling is cooked entirely on the stovetop, without baking, and poured directly into a pre-baked pie shell. Some recipes add pineapple to the basic filling to make cherry-pineapple pie. There are different ways to make this filling. A no-bake version is made by adding the fruit to orange gelatin and making a topping with crushed bananas and chopped nuts. For baked versions of the pie, the filling is similar to other preparations, with crushed pineapple added. There are other variations of cherry pie, such as the cherry angel pie made by filling a meringue bottom crust with vanilla custard and canned cherries. This pie filling is not baked, but chilled in the refrigerator, and garnished with whipped cream before serving. Canned cherry pie filling is also used as a topping for other types of pies like custard pie, ice cream pie and cheesecake pie.

Green tomato pie

Green tomatoes are used to make "mock mincemeat" with apples and raisins, to imitate the flavor of a mincemeat pie, by cooking green tomatoes with sugar and apples, vinegar, raisins and spices until thickened. Some versions add orange peel, jelly, fruit juice or butter. This mock mincemeat is used as pie filling. Green tomato pie can also be made like other fruit pies, by sprinkling sugar, flour, cinnamon and other spices or raisins over sliced tomatoes and pieces of butter, or by cooking the ingredients on the stovetop before baking in a pastry-lined dish.

Mixed berry pie

Berry pie is made with a mix of berries like blueberry, raspberry, blackberry and strawberry using frozen, canned or fresh berries. Spices include ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice, and sometimes coconut is added. The pie can be glazed by brushing the top crust with milk and sugar before baking, or it can be glazed with egg whites and fruit preserves. Raspberry and strawberry fillings are also layered with chocolate, custard, vanilla pudding or cream cheese fillings, and topped with fresh fruits, jam, hot fudge or whipped cream to make layered no-bake pies.

Peach pie

Peach pie This is a list of pies, tarts and flans. A pie is a baked or fried dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweetness, sweet or Umami, savory ingredients. A tart is a baked dish con ...

is made with fresh, frozen or canned peaches. The basic fruit pie filling, made with fresh fruit, lemon juice, sugar and cornstarch, can be frozen in advanced and used later. The basic fresh peach pie can be combined with other fruits like strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, apple, pear or prunes. Peach pie can be topped with whipped cream or streusel with other ingredients like nuts, fresh fruit, coconut or cinnamon. The peaches n' cream variation is made with cream cheese and egg yolk. Some versions also add sour cream. Peaches can be used in a

cream pie A cream pie, crème pie, or creme pie is a type of pie filled with a rich custard or pudding that is made from milk, cream, sugar, wheat flour, and eggs. It comes in many forms, including vanilla, lemon, lime, peanut butter, banana, coconut, a ...

made with vanilla pudding and fresh fruit slices in a graham cracker crust. There are also several varieties of peach ice cream pie made with vanilla or peach ice cream, fruit and sometimes raspberry sorbet and other ingredients. Black bottom peach pie is made with a chocolate cookie crumb crust. The no-bake filling is made by dissolving gelatin in peach syrup and adding crushed canned peaches and lemon juice, then folding in whipped cream when the mixture has cooled enough that it starts to thicken.

Shaker lemon pie

Shaker lemon pie is a four-ingredient pie that originated in the Shaker communities of the

Midwestern The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

United States. To make this pie, lemon slices and sugar are placed in a bowl for several hours until the lemons are juicy, then eggs are beaten in and the mixture is poured into a pastry-lined pie dish. After it is baked, the pie can be served with ice cream, either warm or at room temperature.

Savory pies

In general, savory pies are less common in American cooking than they are in the United Kingdom and Australia, evidenced by the many editions of cookbooks over the centuries always having fewer savory pie recipes than sweet.

Poultry

Poultry pies in the 18th-century were a more general class of pie including chicken, but also turkey, duck, goose or any other small or large wild bird. While

pigeon pie Pigeon pie is a savoury game pie made of pigeon meat and various other ingredients traditional to French cuisine and present in other European cuisines. It has been eaten at least as early as 1670 in French cuisine. Similar dishes to pigeon pie e ...

became immensely popular in England, it reached American shores only to be overshadowed by turkey and chicken. Early recipes for chicken pie from European cuisine were a mix of sweet ingredients like dates and gooseberries, spices like mace and all kinds of meats like tongue, coxcombs, mutton and other ingredients added to the pie along with the chicken. American cooks stripped many of the European elements to create a dish representative of post-Revolution values like thrift and moderation. Leftover chickens and turkeys were turned into pies layered with dumplings. Chicken pie became an essential dish at

Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden and ...

meals, featured in

Sarah Josepha Hale Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (October 24, 1788April 30, 1879) was an American writer, activist, and editor of ''Godey's Lady's Book''. She was the author of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Hale famously campaigned for the creation of the ...

's novel ''Northwood: Life North and South'':

This pie, which is wholly formed of the choicest parts of fowls, enriched and seasoned with a profusion of butter and pepper, and covered with an excellent puff paste is, like celebrated pumpkin pie, an indispensable part of a good and true Yankee Thanksgiving

Edward Everett Hale Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as "The Man Without a Country", published in ''Atlantic Monthly'', in support of the Union dur ...

wrote that "...there was no other day on which we had four kinds of pies on the table and

plum pudding Christmas pudding is sweet dried-fruit pudding traditionally served as part of Christmas dinner in Britain and other countries to which the tradition has been exported. It has its origins in medieval England, with early recipes making use of d ...

beside, not to say chicken pie." Harrier Beecher Stowe wrote in '' Old Town Folks'':

In winter's doldrums, chicken pies became a respite from the numbing similitude of preserved meats, baked beans and brown bread suppers. The fresh cheer that chicken pies brought to the winter dark and their rekindling of holiday celebrations cemented their place in our regional cuisine.

In Esther Allen Howland's 19th century cookbook, chicken pie appears on a menu for Thanksgiving dinner made with parboiled chicken and gravy.

Salmon

Catholic French-Canadians who settled in New England ate salmon pie on Fridays when observant Catholics abstain from eating meat. It was also eaten during Lent. There are several variations of the simple pie, made with canned salmon. The salmon could be combined with

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tartar ...

and lemon juice and baked in pastry and served with mushroom gravy. Vegetables could be added such as celery, carrots, potatoes and peas. Some versions include onions, green pepper, or milk and creamed corn thickened with egg.

Tourtière

Tourtière Tourtière (, ) is a French Canadian meat pie dish originating from the province of Quebec, usually made with minced pork, veal or beef and potatoes. Wild game is sometimes used. It is a traditional part of the Christmas ''réveillon'' and New ...

is a French-Canadian meat pie, usually prepared for the Christmas

Réveillon A ''réveillon'' () is a long dinner held in the evening preceding Christmas Day and New Year's Eve. Its name descends from the word ''réveil'' (meaning "waking"), because participation involves staying awake until morning, as the meal finishes ...

meal. Although its roots may lie in

Medieval cuisine Medieval cuisine includes foods, eating habits, and cooking methods of various European cultures during the Middle Ages, which lasted from the fifth to the fifteenth century. During this period, diets and cooking changed less than they did in th ...

, the story of how the pie arrives in New England remains a matter of dispute. Some say that meat pies first arrived in Canada in the 17th century, others say the particular form of the dish made with potatoes, fragrant spices like cloves and cinnamon, and game birds and animals evolved in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. It arrived in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

with French-Canadian immigrants, who made up nearly one-tenth of New England's population by 1900. It has become a symbol of regional French-Canadian identity that has survived assimilation and language loss. In the United States the fragrant spices are toned down, and cloves often replaced by allspice, which is the most common spice in American versions of the pie. There are many regional variations of the basic mince and potato pie.

Other

Banana cream pie

Banana cream pie is a modified

custard pie A custard pie is any type of uncooked custard mixture added to an uncooked or partially cooked crust and baked together. In North America, custard pie commonly refers to a plain mixture of milk, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and sometimes ...

that dates to at least the 19th-century. It was ranked the favorite dessert of the

United States Armed Services The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

in the 1950s. The no-bake pie filling is made with vanilla pudding or

pastry cream Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from ...

, layered with sliced bananas and whipped cream.

Grasshopper pie

Grasshopper pie is a no-bake

mousse A mousse (; ; "foam") is a soft prepared food that incorporates air bubbles to give it a light and airy texture. Depending on preparation techniques, it can range from light and fluffy to creamy and thick. A mousse may be sweet or savory. as e ...

pie with a chocolate crumb crust. The filling can be made with marshmallows or cream cheese. The cream cheese version is made by adding green food coloring to a mixture of condensed milk with

cream cheese Cream cheese is a soft, usually mild-tasting fresh cheese made from milk and cream.Oxford English Dictionary Stabilizers such as carob bean gum and carrageenan are often added in industrial production. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration de ...

, then gently folding in chocolate covered mint cookie crumbs and whipped topping. Alternately, a mixture of creme de menthe,

creme de cacao Chocolate liqueur is a chocolate flavored liqueur made from a base liquor of whisky or vodka. Unlike chocolate liquor, chocolate liqueur does contain alcohol and is often used as a sweetening ingredient in mixology, baking, and cooking. His ...

and melted marshmallows can be gently folded into fresh whipped cream. Variations of the chocolate cookie crumb crust can be made with wafer crumbs or crumbled sandwich cookies, or by melting chocolate in a double boiler and stirring in toasted rice cereal, then pressing the mixture into a pie dish and allowing it to set in the refrigerator. The pastel-colored pie is associated with springtime, and especially with

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

celebrations in the United States.

Chocolate cherry pie

Chocolate cherry pie, said to have evolved from a Viennese cake, can be made in different ways. A no-bake chocolate cherry pie can be made by pouring chocolate pudding over cherries with a layer of whipped topping and whole cherries. In a variation, cocoa powder can be added to the bottom crust that is filled with homemade chocolate pudding with a layer of canned cherry pie filling with whipped cream topping. Alternatively, another version of no-bake chocolate cherry pie is made by simmering sugar, flour and milk in a saucepan until thickened, then mixing in gelatin and cherry juice. Once cooled the gelatin is gently folded into whipped egg whites together with pieces of

maraschino cherry A maraschino cherry ( ) is a preserved, sweetened cherry, typically made from light-colored sweet cherries such as the Royal Ann cherry, Royal Ann, Rainier cherry, Rainier, or Gold varieties. In their modern form, the cherries are first pre ...

and grated chocolate, and garnished with whipped cream before serving. Chocolate cherry pie can also be made with sweet cherries and a basic custard flavored with chocolate cherry liqueur.

Mud pie

Mud pie is a type of pie with many variations that can be made at home but is also a common dessert at American restaurants. One of the simplest no-bake versions is made with only four ingredients, mocha or coffee ice cream in a chocolate cookie crumb crust with a generous topping of whipped cream and warm fudge sauce. Sometimes coffee liquor or Kahlua is added, or cookies mixed in, and some versions made with eggs are baked like other custard pies. Often associated with the cuisine of the Deep South, especially Mississippi, the mud pie can be found in other regions of the country as well. The name is said to come from the effect created by hot fudge sauce melting the ice cream as it is poured over individual slices of pie.

Rhubarb pie

There are different styles of filling for rhubarb pie. An early recipe for "Pie Plant Pies" from 1874 was made with just four ingredients: sugar and

rhubarb Rhubarb is the fleshy, edible stalks ( petioles) of species and hybrids (culinary rhubarb) of ''Rheum'' in the family Polygonaceae, which are cooked and used for food. The whole plant – a herbaceous perennial growing from short, thick rhizo ...

stems, water and a little flour as a thickener. Strawberries and butter can be added to the basic recipe for strawberry rhubarb pie. For a baked

custard Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fro ...

filling egg yolks and butter can be added. This style of pie can be topped with

meringue Meringue (, ; ) is a type of dessert or candy, often associated with Swiss, French, Polish and Italian cuisines, traditionally made from whipped egg whites and sugar, and occasionally an acidic ingredient such as lemon, vinegar, or cream of ...

. Some recipes also add milk to the filling.

Vinegar pie

Vinegar pie was one of the most popular Southern desserts in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. It is one of the desperation pies (also called make-do pies or poor man's pies). These are homemade pies made with staple ingredients, usually eggs, butter, flour and sugar, though often even eggs and butter were omitted in lean times. Made with a small amount of vinegar sweetened with a lot of sugar, it was a very simple type of pie and inexpensive to make, at times when fresh lemons were a luxury.

Preferences

A 2008 survey by the

American Pie Council The American Pie Council (APC) is an organization committed to "preserving America's pie heritage and promoting America's love affair with pies." As America's only purely pie-focused national organization, the APC combines aspects of a Club (organi ...

found that 19% of Americans preferred

, making it the most popular pie in the United States, followed by

pumpkin pie Pumpkin pie is a dessert pie with a spiced, pumpkin-based custard filling. The pumpkin and pumpkin pie are both a symbol of harvest time, and pumpkin pie is generally eaten during the fall and early winter. In the United States and Canada it is u ...

(13%),

pecan pie Pecan pie is a pie of pecan nuts mixed with a filling of eggs, butter, and sugar (typically corn syrup). Variations may include white or brown sugar, cane syrup, sugar syrup, molasses, maple syrup, or honey. It is popularly served at holiday ...

(12%), banana cream pie (10%) and cherry pie (9%). Pie remains the most popular dessert choice for holidays (followed by

cake Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate, ...

and

cookies A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, nuts ...

References

{{reflist History of American cuisine American pies Thanksgiving food