A pie is a baked food, with a baked shell usually made of pastry dough 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 “filled”, where a
dish is covered by pastry and the filling is placed on top of that, “top-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.
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 à la mode.
Apple pie is a traditional choice, though any pie with sweet fillings may be served à la mode.
This combination, and possibly the name as well, is thought to have been popularized in the mid-1890s
in the United States.
Pot pies with a flaky crust and bottom are also a popular American dish, typically with a filling
of meat (particularly beef, chicken or turkey), gravy, and mixed vegetables (potatoes, carrots
and peas). Frozen pot pies are often sold in individual serving size.
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.
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.
