Shoofly pie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shoofly pie (or shoo-fly pie) is a molasses pie considered traditional among the Pennsylvania Dutch and also known in Southern cooking.
The term "shoo-fly pie" first appeared in print in 1926.[1] The pie gets its name because the molasses attracts flies that must be "shooed" away.[2]
A Montgomery pie is similar to a shoofly pie, except lemon juice is usually added to the bottom layer and buttermilk to the topping.[3] A chess pie is also similar, but it is unlayered and made with corn syrup.
The song "Shoo-Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy" was first performed by June Christy singing with Stan Kenton and his orchestra. A cover version performed by Dinah Shore in 1946 was her first top-ten hit. The song was written by songwriter Guy Wood. Present-day rights to the song are held by Paul McCartney's MPL Communications.[4]
The term "The cat's gotten into the shoofly pie" is also commonly used to describe large systems integration projects that produce random errors at odd intervals [reference needed].
In 2009 the pie was prominently featured in a marketing campaign for the Pennsylvania Tourism board. The campaign is called Peter Arthur Stories, or PA Stories. PA being the postal code for Pennsylvania.
[edit] References
- ^ The Encyclopedia of American Food & Drink (ISBN 0-86730-784-6), by John Mariani.
- ^ History notes on pie and pastry, from the website of a Morris County, New Jersey reference librarian
- ^ Montgomery Pies for Summertime Dessert, from the website of the cooperative extension service at Penn State
- ^ Shoo Fly Pie And Apple Pan Dowdy, with a sample of the Dinah Shore recording (from the MPL Communications website)
[edit] External links
- Traditional Shoofly Pie
- "Pebble-Dash" or Shoo-Fly Pie, a page from a 1915 cookbook (Mary At The Farm And Book Of Recipes Compiled During Her Visit Among The "Pennsylvania Germans") at the website of the Michigan State University Library
- Shoo-fly, don't Amish me, a March 2006 Yale Daily News article on the pie which includes a recipe
