Great American Pie Month

Blackbird Pie?

Robin Hoselton

My childhood curiosity about those four and twenty blackbirds baked into a pie was satisfied recently when I came across an English recipe dating from 1598 which details the procedure.

An inedible long crust, called a coffin, was molded by hand with tall sides, a top covering, and a big hole in the bottom. Filled with flour so it wouldn’t collapse, it was baked until hard. After cooling, the flour was spilled out and a small precooked pie, along with sparrows, swallows or other birds were set inside through the bottom hole. Then when the top crust was cut at the table, all the birds flew out.

Meat pies in one form or another such as pot pies, pitas, shepherds’ pies, empanadas, pocket pies, are known in just about every country in the world. “American” pies, however, usually refer to desserts.

It’s odd that we claim this distinction, as Egyptian etchings in the tomb of Pharaoh Ramses II depict nuts, honey and fruit in bread dough. Thanks to the Greeks, pastry took the place of bread dough, a practice emulated by the Romans when they conquered Greece. The first published pie recipe for a goat cheese and honey pie is attributed to a Roman statesman, Cato the Censor. Supposedly known as “Placenta,” it resembled a cheesecake.

In the eighteenth century, fruit pies were commonly eaten for breakfast. For some reason doing this nowadays is a pleasure accompanied by secrecy and guilt, as though besides breaking a diet, we’re also breaking a law. Perhaps this is a holdover from 1644 when Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of pie, declaring it a pagan form of pleasure. Until 1660, pie eating and making went underground, much like moonshine production during the Prohibition. Apparently a similar religious edict existed in the U.S. as a number of web sites inform us that at one time it was against the law in Kansas to serve ice cream on cherry pie.

According to the American Pie Council, this organization is “dedicated to preserving America’s pie heritage and promoting our love affair with pies.”

One of the fun facts on its site is a personality match.

If you love…            You are likely to describe yourself as…

Apple Pie                 Independent, realistic and compassionate

Pecan Pie                Thoughtful and analytical

Chocolate Pie           Loving
Pumpkin Pie             Funny and independent

APC statistics say 36 million Americans identify apple pie as their favorite. I wonder what traits fit those who like gooseberry or rhubarb.

Today, pie is celebrated in–where else–Celebration, Florida. (Celebration, AKA Kissimmee, is near Orlando). This year the Great American Pie Festival takes place April 25 and 26, 2009. For more information on this event, plus last year’s award winning recipes, check out the Pie Council.

To show my team spirit as a good American this month, I’m partaking of Florida’s official state pie.  What’s more, I’m going to enjoy my Key Lime pie for breakfast!