Pie has a simple and honest character. The crust consists of just a few common ingredients and the filling, once baked, appears appetizingly close to its natural state. Over time, the dessert has come to represent the best of American ideals, history and pride. Just how did the flakey, sweet dessert become embedded with such patriotism and sentimentality?
Food historians claim that ancient people of the Mediterranean created the first pies. From Rome, the pie tradition spread through Europe. Northern Europeans used lard and butter to create the pastry crust that resembles the pie we recognize today. Most early pies contained meat and fish, and were called “coffins.” By the American Revolution, bakers had adapted the word “crust.” From early Roman times to when English settlers landed in America, the crust was usually not eaten, instead it held the insides together during baking.
Time Magazine explains, “Contrary to grade school theater productions across the United States, there was no modern-day pie — pumpkin, pecan or otherwise — at the first Thanksgiving celebration in 1621. Pilgrims brought English-style, meat-based recipes with them to the colonies.” Meat pies were a savvy meal option, as they required less materials to bake than bread, and crusts kept the insides fresh. In the trying times of America’s early days, pie fed many mouths. Later in the century, Native Americans taught colonists to use local berries and foraged edibles in their pies.
As American settlers pushed westward and our country grew, pies began reflecting the available harvest. According to Tori Avey’s History of Pie in America, bakers in Maine filled their pies with local wild blueberries. Today, blueberry pie is the official dessert of the state. In the south, where citrus fruits grow plentifully, Floridians created the key lime pie. As different regions came into their own culinary personalities, their pies reflected it. American creators have long loved to express their individuality and pay homage to their homelands, and bakers accomplished both with different adaptations of pie.