:''This article is about the baked good. For the mathematical constant, see
Pi. For other uses, see
Pie (disambiguation)''.
A 'pie' is a baked food, with a baked shell usually made of
pastry that covers or completely contains a filling of
fruit,
meat,
fish,
vegetables,
cheeses,
creams,
chocolate,
custards,
nuts, or other
sweet or
savoury ingredients. Pies can be either "one-crust," where the filling is placed in a dish and covered with a pastry/potato mash top before baking, or "two-crust," with the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Some pies have only a bottom crust, generally if they have a sweet filling that does not require cooking. These bottom-crust-only pies may be known as
tarts or tartlets. An example of a bottom-crust-only pie that is savoury rather than sweet is a
quiche.
Tarte Tatin is a one-crust fruit pie that is served upside-down, with the crust underneath.
Blind-baking is used to develop a crust's
crispiness, and keep it from becoming soggy under the burden of a very liquid filling. If the crust of the pie requires much more cooking than the chosen filling, it may also be blind-baked before the filling is added and then only briefly cooked or refrigerated.
Pie fillings range in size from tiny bite-size party pies or small tartlets, to single-serve pies (e.g. a
pasty) and larger pies baked in a dish and eaten by the slice. The type of pastry used depends on the filling. It may be either a butter-rich flaky or
puff pastry, a sturdy
shortcrust pastry, or, in the case of savoury pies, a
hot water crust pastry.
Occasionally the term ''pie'' is used to refer to otherwise unrelated
confections containing a sweet or savoury filling, such as
Eskimo pie or
moon pie.
Regional variations
Pies with fillings such as
pork,
steak and kidney,
minced beef or
chicken and
mushroom are popular in the
United Kingdom as take-away snacks. They are also served with
chips as an alternative to
fish and chips at British chip shops. The residents of
Wigan are so renowned for their preference for this food-stuff that they are often referred to as "Pie Eaters" (though the historical reasons for this title are disputed). In honour of this, the main ingredient of a 'Wigan kebab' is the pie, which is placed in a
barm cake to make up the popular local
delicacy. The combination of
pie and mash is traditionally associated with
London.
Shepherd's pie (which does not involve pastry) is also a favourite amongst people throughout Britain.
Fruit pies may be served with a scoop of ice cream, a style known in
North America as ''.
Apple pie is a traditional choice, though any pie with sweet fillings may be served ''à la mode''. This pie is thought to have been popularized in the mid-1890s in the
United States.
The
Australian meat pie has an iconic cultural status, being held to be the
Australian National Food . These meat pies contain beef and gravy in a shortcrust piecase, often with a flakey top. The many different types of small commercially-produced pies are popular forms of
takeaway food in
Australia and
New Zealand, with one of the most widespread brands in Australia being
Four'N Twenty Pie. Many bakeries and specialty stores sell gourmet pies for the more discriminating customer. A peculiarity of
Adelaide cuisine in the
Pie floater.
History
The pie has been around since about 2000 B.C., around the time of the ancient
Egyptians. At some point between 1400 B.C. (the time of Greek settlements) and 600 B.C. (the time of the decline of Egypt), the pie is believed to have been passed on to the Greeks by the Egyptians.
From Greece the pie spread to Rome, somewhere around 100 B.C. by which time pies had already been around for some 1000 years. The first known pie recipe came from the Romans and was for a rye-crusted goat cheese and honey pie.
Pies appeared in England in the 12th century and were predominantly meat pies. The crust of the pie was referred to as the “coffyn” and there was generally more crust than filling. Sometimes these pies were made with fowl and the legs were left outside the pie to act as handles. For a long time the pastry crust was actually not eaten, serving only to preserve the moisture and flavour of the filling.
Pies went to America with the first English settlers. As in Roman times the early American pie crusts were not eaten, but simply designed to hold the filling. Today, virtually every country in the world has some form of pie.
Pie throwing
Cream filled or topped pies are favourite props for humour, particularly when aimed at the pompous. Throwing a pie in a person's face has been a staple of film comedy since the early days of the medium, and is often associated with
clowns in popular culture. Pranksters have taken to targeting politicians and celebrities with their pies, an act called
pieing. Activists sometimes engage in the pieing of political and social targets as well. One such group is the
Biotic Baking Brigade. "Pieing" can result in injury to the target and assault or more serious charges against the pie throwers
[1]. In
Des Moines, Iowa, in
1977, singer and anti-
gay-rights activist
Anita Bryant became one of the first persons to be "pied" as a political act. See
List of people who have been pied.
Savoury pies
★
Bacon and egg pie
★
Butter pie
★
Chicken and mushroom pie
★
Corned beef pie
★
Cottage pie
★
Kalakukko
★
Meat pie
★
Meat and potato pie
★
Pasty
★
Pizza pie
★
Pork pie
★
Pot pie
★
Potato pie
★
Scotch pie
★
Shepherds' pie
★
Stargazy pie
★
Steak pie
★
Steak and ale pie
★
Steak and kidney pie
A chicken pie featuring the traditional English blackbird
Sweet pies
Some of these pies are pies in name only, such as the Boston cream pie, which is a
cake, and
cheesecake which is only cake in name.
See also
★
Cake
★
Pastry
★
Dessert
★
Quiche
External links
★
The American Pie Council
★
History of Pie
★
Food Timeline, History Notes: Pie & Pastry
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