Pie

This article is about the baked good, for other uses see Pie (disambiguation).

A slice of strawberry-rhubarb pie à la mode

A pie is a baked dish, with a baked shell usually made of pastry that covers or completely contains a filling of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, 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. One example of a savoury bottom-crust-only pie 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

Some pies of British origin, such as shepherd's pie, have a shell or covering constructed of mashed potato.

Pies with sweet fillings may be served with a scoop of ice cream, in a style known in North America as à la mode.

The Australian meat pie, beef and gravy in a shortcrust piecase, often with a flakey top, has an iconic cultural status, being held to be the Australian National Food. 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. Many bakeries and specialty stores sell gourmet pies for the more discriminating customer. A peculiarity of Adelaide cuisine is the Pie floater. In New Zealand, pie is a common part of a workday lunch.

Pies with fillings such as pork, steak and kidney, minced beef and onion, or chicken and mushroom are popular in the UK 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 locally popular delicacy. Shepherds Pie is also a favourite amongst people in Northern England.

As with dumplings, many cultures have independently discovered pies as a useful and delicious way to utilize otherwise useless ingredients left over in the household.

History

The pie has been around since the ancient Egyptians from 2000 B.C. At some point between 1400 B.C. (Greek settlements) and 600 B.C. (the decline of Egypt) the pie is believed to have 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.

A French chef named Guillaume Tirel produced a cookery book in the 14th Century that included a recipe for marinated and sautéed eel which was used for the Christian Lent period when it was forbidden to eat meat.

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 but Australia remains a dominant force when it comes to innovation and quality of pies. With acknowledgement to Kerry Sullivan, Leading Edge Magazine.

Pie in popular culture

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 real life 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.

Pie is regularly referenced in many contexts, often to inexplicably humorous ends. Pie itself may be an inherently funny word, or it may be that it is the thought of actual pie which adds humour to a situation. In any case, the following are but a few of the innumerable pop culture references to pie that could be listed.

• In British popular culture, a person who is overweight is often subject to the chant of, "Who ate all the pies"
• Garrison Keillor's radio show A Prairie Home Companion regularly thanks a fictional sponsor named Beebopareebop Rhubarb Pie, which supposedly sells frozen rhubarb pies.
• Weebl and Bob also made popular the use of the word pie, using it as a main topic in nearly all of their episodes. Examples include going to "Pikea", eating pie, pie cleaner etc.

As you will probly see that this is a load of ball why the hell do you want to search pies anyway i think you should go home and kill yourself befor your mum finds out oh and btw you r unluky if u copied and pasted this fuck cunt shit twat

Sweet pies

A homemade cherry pie with a lattice top

Some of these pies are pies in name only, such as the Boston cream pie, which is a cake.

Apple pie Boston cream pie Cherry pie Cheesecake Chess pie Cream pie

Custard pie Dutch apple pie Key lime pie Lemon meringue pie Lemon pie Mock apple pie

Pecan pie Pumpkin pie Rhubarb pie, Strawberry-rhubarb pie Shoofly pie - a pie filled with molasses

External links

• The American Pie Council
• Complete Recipes: Pies
• Tourtiere/Meat Pie Recipes
• Pie of the Month
• All Pie recipes

History of Pie

• History of Pie
• Food Timeline, History Notes: Pie & Pastry