HOME

TheInfoList



Click Here for Items Related To - Chess pie
OR:
Chess pie on:   [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Amazon]

Chess pie is a
dessert Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal; the course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, biscuit, ice cream, and possibly a beverage, such as dessert wine or liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly umami, ...
with a filling composed mainly of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes milk, characteristic of Southern United States cuisine. Jefferson Davis pie is similar to chess pie, but
Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...
pie may also contain spices, nuts, or dried fruits and is usually topped with
meringue Meringue ( , ) is a type of dessert or candy, of French cuisine, French origin, traditionally made from Whisk, whipped egg whites and sugar, and occasionally an acid, acidic ingredient such as lemon, vinegar, or potassium bitartrate, cream of t ...
.


History

It is unknown where the name "chess pie" came from, although there are several well-known theories. The most likely is "chess-cake pie", as in cheese cake pie, became chess pie over time. Martha Washington's Chess Cake recipe is very similar to today's chess pie. The 1881 cookbook ''Buckeye Cookery—With Hints on Practical Housekeeping'' included a recipe submitted by Mrs. J. Carson of
Glendale, Minnesota Glendale is an unincorporated community in Leiding Township, Saint Louis County, Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba an ...
. The recipe maintained the basic custard ingredients of eggs, butter, and sugar, but the egg whites were whipped into a meringue and spread on top. One of the most popular theories is that it is an
eggcorn An eggcorn is the alteration of a word or phrase through the mishearing or reinterpretation of one or more of its elements,, sense 2 creating a new phrase which is plausible when used in the same context. Thus, an eggcorn is an unexpectedly fitti ...
of "It's just pie" due to a misinterpretation of the pronunciation "It's jes' pie" in
Southern American English Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, primarily by White Southerners and increasingly concentrated in more rural areas ...
. The pie was thought to be so simple any home cook with eggs, butter and sugar would know what to do. It is the South's most searched-for Thanksgiving pie. Despite the pie's iconic status in the South, no recipe for "Chess Pie" appears in the first Southern cookbook,
Mary Randolph Mary Randolph (August 9, 1762 – January 23, 1828) was a Southern American cook and author, known for writing ''The Virginia House-Wife; Or, Methodical Cook'' (1824), one of the most influential housekeeping and cook books of the 19th century. ...
's 1824 ''
The Virginia Housewife ''The Virginia House-Wife'' is an 1824 housekeeping manual and cookbook by Mary Randolph. In addition to recipes it gave instructions for making soap, starch, blacking and cologne. Publication history ''The Virginia House-Wife'' was first pub ...
''. One food historian explains the early recipes for transparent pudding, such as "Mary Randolph's Transparent Pudding" (containing no milk) in the 1825 edition are "for all intents and purposes chess pie". Recipes for "Chess Pie" made without milk can be found in early 20th-century cookbooks. Variations of the chess pie include transparent pie, molasses pie, brown sugar pie, syrup pie, and vinegar pie.


Composition

The basic chess pie recipe calls for the preparation of a single crust and a filling composed of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs and milk or condensed milk. Some variations call for the addition of cornmeal as a thickener. Many recipes call for an acid such as vinegar, buttermilk, or lemon juice. Recipes dating from the 19th century typically including eggs, butter, sugar, and vinegar baked in a pie crust, with regional variations. In addition to standard chess pie, other flavor variations include lemon, coconut, and chocolate chess pie. Some nut pies, including some pecan, fall under the category of chess pies. Traditional pecan pie recipes do not include milk or condensed milk in the filling, and are typically regarded as a type of
sugar pie Sugar pie is a dessert in northern French and Belgian cuisine, where it is called . It is also popular in Canada. Various type of ''tarte au sucre'' are made. Some are a leavened dough topped with beet sugar or brown sugar, others have a crus ...
similar to British
treacle Treacle () is any uncrystallised syrup made during the refining of sugar.Oxford Dictionary The most common forms of treacle are golden syrup, a pale variety, and black treacle, a darker variety similar to molasses. Black treacle has a distinctiv ...
rather than a milk-containing custard (see ).


See also

*
Buttermilk pie Buttermilk pie is a pie in American cuisine. Associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States, it may be considered a desperation pie, made using simple, staple ingredients. It is similar to, and sometimes confused with, chess pie, bu ...
* Chess cake *
List of pies, tarts and flans 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 ...


References


Works cited

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chess Pie Sweet pies Cuisine of the Southern United States American pies