Crafty Moms Share: Fun Facts about Pie with Pie Recipes & Crafts Round-Up

What are you serving or having for Thanksgiving? Some of the traditional things are turkey (although there probably was not turkey at the "first" Thanksgiving) and pie. Since we have shared fun facts about turkeys and apples I thought we would share today a bit about pies. What is your favorite pie? I love blueberry!! Steve and Hazel love apple.

Fun Facts

Pies have been around since the ancient Egyptians. In 6000 BC Neolithic Period an early form of a pie called a galette was a pie-like treat made with wheat, oat, rye and barley and then filled with honey and baked over the hot coals.
In 1304 to 1237 BC bakers to the pharaohs added nuts, honey, and fruits baked in a bread dough. (Drawings can be found etched on the tomb walls of King Ramses II.

The Greeks continued the tradition of galettes. Historians believe the Greeks probably originated the pie pastry. Their pies were a flour-water paste wrapped around meat to cook the meat and seal in the juices.
The Romans seem to have brought the recipe for pies back from conquering Greece. The pies were made in the reeds which were meant to keep the filling and not to be eaten with the filling.
For hundreds of years the pastry shell was the only baking vessel used so everything was baked in a pie. The crust was not eaten it was used for a baking dish, serving dish and storage. In 1545 sugar became more readily available and the pastry crust began to be eaten.
The Oxford English Dictionary notes that pie was popular in the 14^th century.
The first pie recipe was published by the Romans and was for a rye-crusted goat cheese and honey pie.
Early pies were predominantly meat pies. Pyes appeared in England as early as the 12^th century. The crust was referred to as coffyn and there was more crust than filling. Open crusted pies (no lids) were called traps. Traps were like modern day casseroles where the crust was the baking pan.

Melton Mowbray Pork Pie By http://www.flickr.com/photos/58915463@N05/ [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Fruit pies or tarts (pasties) were probably first made in the 1500s. English tradition credits the first cherry pie to Queen Elizabeth I.

Traditional Strawberry Rhubarb Pie By Anneli Salo (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Pie came to America with the English colonists. The colonists began to use round pans to literally cut the corners and stretch the ingredients. The colonists found crab apples in America—the only type of apple native to America.
In 1651 the first pumpkin pie recipe was published by a French chef. It was not until 1796 that a truly American cookbook was published and it had two recipes for pumpkin pudding that was baked in a crust making them similar to modern pumpkin pie.

Hazel's first pumpkin pie
It was during the American Revolution that the term crust was used instead of coffyn.
Pioneer women often served pie with every meal. Thus making it unique to the American culture. In 1796 Rev. George Acrelious described eating apple pie all year.
Over the years pie has become what it is today and is now considered the most traditional American dessert and we commonly use the term “as American as apple pie.”