Pie

Apieis abakeddish which is usually made of apastrydough casing that contains a filling of varioussweetorsavouryingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in anapple pie), nuts (pecan pie),fruit preserves(jam tart), brown sugar (sugar pie), sweetened vegetables (rhubarb pie), or with thicker fillings based on eggs and dairy (as incustard pieandcream pie). Savoury pies may be filled with meat (as in asteak pieor aJamaican patty), eggs and cheese (such asquichesorBritish flans) or a mixture of meat and vegetables (pot pie).
Pies are defined by theircrusts. Afilledpie (alsosingle-crustorbottom-crust), has pastry lining the baking dish, and the filling is placed on top of the pastry but left open. Atop-crustpie has the filling in the bottom of the dish and is covered with a pastry or other covering before baking. Atwo-crustpie has the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell.Shortcrust pastryis a typical kind of pastry used for pie crusts, but many things can be used, includingbaking powder biscuits,mashed potatoes, andcrumbs.
Pies can be a variety of sizes, ranging from bite-size to those designed for multiple servings.
The first known use of the word 'pie' appears in 1303 in the expense accounts of theBolton PrioryinYorkshire. However, theOxford English Dictionaryis uncertain to its origin and says 'no further related word is known outside English'.A possible origin is that the word 'pie' is connected with a word used in farming to indicate 'a collection of things made into a heap', for example a heap of potatoes covered with earth.
One source of the word "pie" may be themagpie, a "bird known for collecting odds and ends in its nest"; the connection could be that Medieval pies also contained many different animal meats, including chickens, crows, pigeons and rabbits.One 1450 recipe for “grete pyes” that might support the "magpie" etymology contained what Charles Perry called "odds and ends", including: "...beef, beef suet, capons, hens, both mallard and teal ducks, rabbits, woodcocks and large birds such as herons and storks, plus beef marrow, hard-cooked egg yolks, dates, raisins and prunes."
Early pies were in the form of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes calledgalettesconsisting of a crust of groundoats,wheat,rye, orbarleycontaininghoneyinside. These galettes developed into a form of early sweetpastryordesserts, evidence of which can be found on the tomb walls of thePharaohRamesses II, who ruled from 1304 to 1237 BC, located in theValley of the Kings.Sometime before 2000 BC, a recipe forchicken piewas written on a tablet inSumer.
In the plays ofAristophanes(5th century BC), there are mentions ofsweetmeatsincluding small pastries filled with fruit. Nothing is known of the actual pastry used.
The Romans made a plain pastry of flour, oil, and water to cover meats and fowls which were baked, thus keeping in the juices. The Roman approach of covering "...birds or hams with dough" has been called more of an attempt to prevent the meat from drying out during baking than an actual pie in the modern sense.The covering was not meant to be eaten. It filled the role of what was later called puff paste. A richer pastry, intended to be eaten, was used to make small pasties containing eggs or little birds which were among the minor items served at banquets.The first written reference to a Roman pie is for a rye dough that was filled with a mixture of goat's cheese and honey.
The 1st-century Roman cookbookApiciusmakes various mentions of recipes which involve a pie case.By 160 BC, Roman statesmanMarcus Porcius Cato(234–149 BC), who wroteDe Agri Cultura, notes the recipe for the most popular pie/cake calledplacenta. Also calledlibumby the Romans, it was more like a modern-daycheesecakeon a pastry base, often used as an offering to the gods. With the development of the Roman Empire and its efficient road transport, pie cooking spread throughoutEurope.Wealthy Romans combined many types of meats in their pies, including mussels and other seafood.Roman pie makers generally used vegetable oils, such as olive oil, to make their dough.
In the Medieval era, pies were usually savoury meat pies made with "...beef, lamb, wild duck, magpie pigeon -- spiced with pepper, currants or dates".Medieval cooks had restricted access to ovens due to their costs of construction and need for abundant supplies of fuel. Since pies could be easily cooked over an open fire, this made pies easier for most cooks to make. At the same time, by partnering with a baker, a cook could focus on preparing the filling.
The earliest pie doughs were probably an inedible, stiff mixture of rye flour and water. The earliest pie recipes refer tocoffyns(the word actually used for abasketorbox), with straight sealed sides and a top; open-top pies were calledtraps.Until the mid-16th century this British pie dough known as "cofyn" was used as a baking dish.These pies were meant to be eaten with the hands. The hardened coffyn pastry was not necessarily eaten, its function being to contain the filling for baking, and to extend its shelf-life.The thick crust was so sturdy it had to be cracked open to get to the filling.This may also be the reason why early recipes focus on the filling over the surrounding case, with this development leading to the use of reusable earthenware pie cases which reduced the use of expensive flour.Ceramic pie dishes were not used until the 16th century. Medieval pie crusts were often baked first, to create a "pot" of baked dough with a removable top crust, hence the namepot pie.
The first unequivocal reference to pie in a written source is in the 14th century (Oxford English Dictionarysbpie).The eating of mince pies during festive periods is a tradition that dates back to the 13th century, as the returning Crusaders brought pie recipes containing "meats, fruits and spices".Some pies contained cooked rabbits, frogs,crows, and pigeons.
In 1390, the English cookbookA Forme of Curyhad a recipe for “tartes of flesh”, which included a ground-up mixture of "pork, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese" blended with "spices, saffron, and sugar".The "cofyn" dough for the 14th-century apple pie recipe fromThe Forme of Curywas probably a simple mix of water and whatever flour was available inlate middle ages.The recipe included spices,  apples, raisins pears and figs.  The 14th-century French chef Taillevent instructed bakers to "crenelate" pie shells and "reinforce them so that they can support the meat"; one of his pies was high enough that it resembled a model of a castle, an illusion enhanced by miniature banners for the nobles at the event.
Pies in the 15th century included birds, assong birdsat the time were a delicacy and protected by Royal Law. At the coronation of eight-year-old EnglishKing Henry VI(1422–1461) in 1429, "Partrich" and "Pecok enhakill" were served, alleged by some modern writers to consist of cookedpeacockmounted in its skin on a peacock-filled pie. The expressions "eat crow" and "four and 20 blackbirds" are sayings from the era when crow and blackbirds were eaten in pies.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.The apple pie was first referenced in writing in 1589, when the poet R. Green wrote "Thy breath is like the seeme of apple pies".
Medieval England had an early form of sweet pies calledtartsand fruit pies were unsweetened, because sugar was a rare and costlystatus symbol.In the Middle Ages, a pie could have several items as its filling, but apastrywould have only a single filling.
Until the start of the 15th century, most pies were expected to contain meat or fish.In the 15th century, more custard and fruit pie recipes began appearing, often with apples and figs and  dried fruit like dates and raisins. Fresh fruit did not become widely used until sugar dropped in price during the 16th century.The first cherry pie is recorded in the late 16th century, whenQueen Elizabeth Iwas served cherry pie.Elizabeth was often given gifts of quince or pear pies for New Year.
During theShakespeareanera, fruit pies were served hot, but others were served at room temperature, as they would be brought to the "...table more than once".Apple pies were popular in Tudor and Stuart times.Pippinswere baked withcloves,cinnamon,datesandcandied orange peels.Rosewaterwas often added to apple pies.
During the Puritan era ofOliver Cromwell, some sources claim mince pie eating was banned as a frivolous activity for 16 years, so mince pie making and eating became an underground activity; the ban was lifted in 1660, with the Restoration of the monarchy.Food historian Annie Gray suggests that the myth of the Puritans "actively" banning mince pies came about "due to the defenders of Christmas" who reported Puritan vitriol "with a certain amount of exaggeration".
It was in the 16th century that a puff paste began to be used to make flakier pie crusts.In Gervase Markham's 1615 bookThe English Huswife, there is a recipe for puff paste  where the paste is kneaded, rolled thinly many times while layering with butter.  This made a flaky butter pastry to cover meat for pies  or for tarts.There is  also a pie recipe that calls for "an entire leg of mutton and three pounds of suet..., along with salt, cloves, mace, currants, raisins, prunes, dates, and orange peel", which made a huge pie that could serve a large group.According to Markham, crusts made with fine wheat flour required the addition of eggs to be sturdy enough for raised pies.
In the 17th century,Ben Jonsondescribed a skilled pie cook by comparing the cook to a fortification builder who "...Makes citadels of curious fowl and fish" and makes "dry-ditches", "bulwark pies" and "ramparts of immortal crusts".
In theGeorgianera, sweetened pies of meat and dried fruits began to become less popular. In recipe books of the period sweet veal, sweet lamb or sweet chicken pies are given alongside recipes for unsweetened alternatives with the same ingredients made for those who could "no longer stomach the sweetened flesh meats enjoyed by earlier generations".
Pumpkin piewas fashionable in England from the 1650s onward, then fell out of favour during the 18th century.Pumpkinwas sliced, fried with sweet herbs sweetened with sugar and eggs were added. This was put into a pastry case with currants and apples. Pumpkin pie was introduced to America by early colonists where it became a national dish.
During the 19th century, pies became, according to food historian Janet Clarkson, "universally esteemed" in a way that other foods were not.In 1806Mrs Rundellin her Observations on Savoury Pies inA New System of Domestic Cookerystated that 'There are few articles of cookery more generally liked than relishing pies, if properly made'.Alexis Soyer, a celebrity cook of the 19th century said in his bookShilling Cookery for the People(1860) "From childhood we eat pies - from girlhood to boyhood we eat pies - in fact, pies in England may be considered as one of our best companions du voyage through life. It is we who leave them behind, not they who leave us; for our children and grandchildren will be as fond of pies as we have been; therefore it is needful that we should learn how to make them, and make them well! Believe me, I am not jesting, but if all the spoilt pies made in London on one single Sunday were to be exhibited in a row beside a railway line, it would take above an hour by special train to pass in review these culinary victims".
The Pilgrims brought the pie recipes they knew from their home countries with them when they arrived to the colonies. Colonists appreciated thefood preservationaspect of crusty-topped pies, which were often seasoned with "dried fruit, cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg".Their first pies included pies that were based on berries and fruits pointed out to them by theNative North Americans.
According toJames 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".Apple piebecame popular, because apples were easy to dry and store in barrels over the winter.
Pie fillings could be made with very few ingredients to "stretch" their "meager provisions".These pies later came to be known asdesperation pies. First originating in the 18th century they included pies likesugar cream pieandKentucky transparent pie.By the 19th century pies were a staple of the American family meal and women were responsible for figuring out how to make tasty pies that fit within the family budget.
Once the British had established Caribbean colonies, sugar became less expensive and more widely available, which meant that sweet pies could be readily made.Molasses was popular in American pies due to the rum and slave trade with the Caribbean Islands, andmaple syrupwas an important sweetener in Northern states, after Indigenous people taught settlers how to tap maple trees and boil down the sap.In the Midwest, cheese and cream pies were popular, due to the availability of big dairy farms.In the US south,African-Americansenjoyedsweet potatopies, due to the widespread availability of this type of potato.
By the 1870s, the new science ofnutritionled to criticism of pies, notably bySarah Tyson Rorer, a cooking teacher and food editor who warned the public about how much energy pies take to digest.Rorer stated that all pie crusts "...are to be condemned" and her cookbook only included an apple tart, jelly and meringue-covered crackers, pâté, and a "hygienic pie" which had "apple slices or a pumpkin custard baked in biscuit dough".In 1866,Harper's Magazineincluded an article by C.W. Gesner that stated that although we "...cry for pie when we are infants", "Pie kills us finally", as the "heavy crust" cannot be digested.
Another factor that decreased the popularity of pies wasindustrializationand increasing movement of women into the labour market, which changed pie making from a weekly ritual to an "occasional undertaking" on special occasions.In the 1950s, after WWII, the popularity of pies rebounded in the US, especially with commercial food inventions such as instant pudding mixes,Cool Whiptopping, andJellogelatin (which could be used as fillings) ready-made crusts, which were sold frozen, and alternative crusts made with crushed potato chips.There was a pie renaissance in the 1980s, when old-fashioned pie recipes were rediscovered and a wide range of cross-cultural pies were explored.
Meat pieswith fillings such as steak, cheese,steak and kidney, beef and ale, lamb and mint,minced beef, orchickenandmushroomare popular in the United Kingdom,Australia, South Africa and New Zealand as take-away snacks. They are also served withchipsas an alternative tofish and chipsat British chip shops.
Pot pieswith a flaky crust and bottom are also a popular dish, typically with a filling of meat (particularly beef, chicken, or turkey), gravy, and mixed vegetables (potatoes, carrots, and peas).  Frozen pot pies are often sold in individual serving size.
Fruit pies may be served with a scoop of ice cream, a style known in North America aspie à la mode. Many sweet pies are served this way. Apple pie is a traditional choice, though any pie with sweet fillings may be servedà la mode. This combination, and possibly the name as well, is thought to have been popularized in the mid-1890s in the United States.Apple pie can be made with a variety of apples; cultivars such as theGolden Delicious,Pink Lady,Granny Smith, andRome Beautyare popular for usage in pies.
Cold pigeon pies and venison pasties appear in novels byJane Austen, but also more generally in writing in the 18th century.The character Mrs Elton, from the 1815 novelEmma, believes herself to be modern, but nevertheless plans to take 'pigeon-pies and cold lamb' to a country outing to Box Hill and consultsGeorge Turberville's 1575 workThe Noble Art of Venerie(1575) for advice.
In the 1817 novelPersuasion, Jane Austen includes pies in her description of an old-fashioned Christmas spread, mentioning 'tressels and trays, bending under the weight of brawn and cold pies'. In the whole ofPersuasion, brawn and cold pies are the only specific mention of food; they are also the only Christmas foods to be mentioned in any of Jane Austen's novels.
In the United States, a popular idiom is "American as apple pie".There pie, especially apple pie, became intertwined to the point that in 1902,The New York Timesasserted that "pie is the food of the heroic" and "no pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished".
The slang expression "to eat humble pie" comes from theumble pie, which was made with chopped animal offal. "It's a piece of pie", meaning that something is easy, dates from 1889."Pie-eyed", meaning drunk, dates from 1904.The expression "pie in the sky", to refer to an unlikely proposal or idea, comes from "The Preacher and the Slave", a 1911Joe Hillsong.
Cream filled or topped pies are favourite props forslapstickhumour. Throwing a pie in a person's face has been a staple of film comedy sinceBen Turpinreceived one inMr. Flipin 1909.More recently,pieinghas also become a political act; some activists throw cream pies at politicians and other public figures as a form of protest.
Some of these pies are pies in name only, such as theBoston cream pie, which is acake.
Many fruit and berry pies are very similar, varying only the fruit used in filling. Fillings for sweet or fruity are often mixed, such asstrawberry rhubarb pie.