They’re simple, they’re American and come Thanksgiving, everybody saves room for them. But the pies we know today are a fairly recent addition to a history that goes back as long as mankind has had dough to bake into a crust and stuff to put inside it. In medieval England, they were called pyes, and instead of being predominantly sweet, they were most often filled with meat — beef, lamb, wild duck, magpie pigeon — spiced with pepper, currants or dates. Historians trace pie’s initial origins to the Greeks, who are thought to be the originators of the pastry shell, which they made by combining water and flour. The wealthy Romans used many different kinds of meats — even mussels and other types of seafood — in their pies. Meat pies were also often part of Roman dessert courses, or secundae mensea. Cato the Younger recorded the popularity of this sweet course, and a cheesecake-like dish called Placenta, in his treatise De Agricultura.
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. While pumpkin pie, which is first recorded in a cookbook in 1675, originated from British spiced and boiled squash, it was not popularized in America until the early 1800s. Historians don’t know all the dishes the Pilgrims served in the first Thanksgiving feast, but primary documents indicate that pilgrims cooked with fowl and venison — and it’s not unlikely that some of that meat found its way between sheets of dough at some point. The colonists cooked many a pie: because of their crusty tops, pies acted as a means to preserve food, and were often used to keep the filling fresh during the winter months. And they didn’t make bland pies, either: documents show that the Pilgrims used dried fruit, cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg to season their meats. Further, as the colonies spread out, the pie’s role as a means to showcase local ingredients took hold and with it came a proliferation of new, sweet pies. A cookbook from 1796 listed only three types of sweet pies; a cookbook written in the late 1800s featured 8 sweet pie varieties; and by the 1947 the Modern Encyclopedia of Cooking listed 65 different varieties of sweet pies.
There are few things as American as apple pie, as the saying goes, but like much of America’s pie tradition, the original apple pie recipes came from England. These pre-Revolutionary prototypes were made with unsweetened apples and encased in an inedible shell. Yet the apple pie did develop a following, and was first referenced in the year 1589, in Menaphon by poet R. Greene: “Thy breath is like the steeme of apple pies.” (500 years later, we have “I’m Lovin’ It”, thanks to McDonald’s and its signature apple pie in an individual-serving sleeve.) Pies today are world-spanning treats, made with everything from apples to avocados. The winners of this year’s annual APC Crisco National Pie Championship included classic apple, pumpkin and cherry pies, but citrus pies, banana foster crème and Wolf Pack trail mix pies have all made the awards list. Pies have come a long way since the days of magpie and pepper, but many bakeries — including The Little Pie Shop in New York City, in the audio below — say a classic apple pie is still their top holiday seller.
FAQs
Here's a brief history of finding π. The ancient Babylonians calculated the area of a circle by taking 3 times the square of its radius, which gave a value of pi = 3. One Babylonian tablet (ca. 1900–1680 BC) indicates a value of 3.125 for π, which is a closer approximation.
What does the apple pie symbolize? ›
Apple pie is traditionally associated with American patriotism and national identity. During World War II, soldiers famously claimed they were fighting for “mom and apple pie.” Since then, apple pie has become a symbol of family and home for many Americans.
What portion of Americans admit to having eaten an entire pie by themselves? ›
One in five Americans have eaten an entire pie by themselves.
Does pie have an ending? ›
The miraculous fact about Pi is that no matter the size of the circle, the value does not change, making Pi a mathematical constant. Adding to its allure, Pi is also an irrational number which means that its decimal representation has no end and no repeating pattern.
Why is 3.14 called pi? ›
The first recorded use of π as a mathematical symbol comes from the Welsh mathematician William Jones in a 1706 work called Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos, in which he abbreviated the Greek περιϕέρεια, (meaning “circumference,” or “periphery”) to its first letter: π.
Who created pi? ›
But you might not know much about the genius guy who first calculated pi: Archimedes of Syracuse, Sicily, one of the greatest mathematicians of the ancient world.
Is π infinite? ›
Answer: No, pi (π) is not equal to infinity; it is an irrational number approximately equal to 3.14159 and extends infinitely without repeating in its decimal representation. Understanding Pi (π): Pi (π) is a mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.
Is a pizza a pie? ›
In America, pizzas are considered a pie. This definition refers to the pie being made of tomato sauce, cheese, and meat and then covered with dough. The name comes from the ingredients layered on top of each other.
What is pie slang for? ›
What does pie mean? To most of us, pie conjures up an image of a pastry with fruit filling, yum … but to drug dealers (or users) pie refers to a kilogram of drugs, usually cocaine.
What does sticking your finger in a pie mean? ›
to be involved in something, often when your involvement is not wanted. Getting involved for one's own benefit or against others' will. a piece/slice of the action idiom.
phrase [Ns inflect] If you say that someone has a finger in every pie, you mean they are involved in a lot of things. He very much likes to have a finger in every pie. He's a man with fingers in a lot of pies.
Which states eat the most pie? ›
The data was collected by evaluating which states saw more pie orders in 2018 when compared to the rest of the country.
- New Mexico: 261% more pie orders.
- Arizona: 246% more pie orders.
- Indiana: 173% more pie orders.
- Missouri: 145% more pie orders.
- West Virginia: 135% more pie orders.
- Michigan: 126% more pie orders.
Pies have provided a way for the British elite to show off with more than just size. The 16th and 17th Centuries saw the rise of so-called Surprised Pyes, created to impress guests at aristocratic banquets by concealing unexpected things under an additional removable pastry lid added after cooking.
Who was the first person to eat pie? ›
The Ancient Egyptians were the first to invent a dish close to what we know as a pie today. They had a honey filling covered in a crusty cake made from oats, wheat, rye or barley. A recipe for chicken pie was also discovered on a tablet carved prior to 2000 BC.
Who calculated 100 trillion digits of pi? ›
The achievement "was no small feat," Solidigm owner Brian Beeler said in the statement. "It involved meticulous planning, optimization, and execution." In April 2023, Solidigm matched the record of 100 trillion digits of pi, which was calculated by Google Cloud in 2022.
How many digits of pi did Archimedes calculate? ›
Archimedes computed upper and lower bounds of π by drawing a regular hexagon inside and outside a circle, and successively doubling the number of sides until he reached a 96-sided regular polygon. By calculating the perimeters of these polygons, he proved that 223/71 < π < 22/7 (that is, 3.1408 < π < 3.1429).
Who recited 100000 digits of pi? ›
Haraguchi holds the current unofficial world record for reciting 100,000 digits of pi in 16 hours, starting at 9:00 a.m. (16:28 GMT) on October 3, 2006. He equaled his previous record of 83,500 digits by nightfall and then continued until stopping with digit number 100,000 at 1:28 a.m. on October 4, 2006.
Who holds the title for most digits of pi? ›
According to it, the current record is held by Suresh Kumar Sharma, who recited an incredible 70 030 digits of π in 17 hours and 14 minutes. That is an average of just over 1 digit per second. There are other unofficial record holders like Akira Haraguchi from Japan, who claims to have memorized 111 700 digits[2].
