Talk:Shoofly pie

I edited the article to make it clear that shoofly pie is of Pennsylvania Dutch origin. It may be common in parts of the South (though none of my Southern friends have ever heard of it before), but that is most likely because the recipe spread there.

History of the Pie

I found this article through Google, which presents a fair bit of plausible history for the pie. Can anyone verify that this information is legitimate: http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/PieHistory/ShooflyPie.htm Westquote (talk) 15:46, 2 December 2010 (UTC)

First Use in Print

It seems that if the 1915 cookbook listed in the references section and accessible via the provided hyperlink mentions "shoo-fly pie" then the earliest known date in which the term was used in print cannot possibly be 1926, but rather 1915.

I have no doubts that the name is much older than that - I'll see what I can find. I'll also check out the 1926 source to see what I can learn. Obviously the 1926 source isn't reliable. Rklawton (talk) 16:39, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Google Books search and ngram viewer are your friends. Try 1829 -Miskaton (talk) 22:27, 30 November 2011 (UTC)

Gotta love Google. The problem is, though, that the 1829 date is a typo. Rklawton (talk) 16:24, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

I checked out the source for 1926, and yes, that's what it says. But the photocopy of the older book's page contradicts it (External links). As a result, I've removed the date. In reading the source, however, I found that it supports the hyphenated version and the name "Montgomery pie" - so I added those bits in and moved the reference to make it clear these details have a source. Rklawton (talk) 16:24, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Name Origin

A citation is needed for the claim that the name of the dessert is most likely an anglicization of "souffle." This smacks of internet-originated urban legend to me, not unlike the claim that the word "golf" originated as an acronym for "gentlemen only, ladies forbidden." Shoofly pie bears little resemblance to a souffle either in taste or makeup so it simply would not make sense that the pie would originally be called "souffle pie". Moreover, "souffle" is a word which has been in wide use in English as a borrowed word for a long time, so there would be no need to "anglicize" it. And that's not to mention that the pronunciations of "souffle" and "shoofly" are very different. When a word is "anglicized" from another language, the anglicization usually relates more to the spelling than the pronunciation.

In contrast, the explanation that the name is due to the high sugar content and the attraction of flies makes perfect sense. Many foods obtained their name this way. For example, "hush puppies" got their name because they were supposedly tossed to dogs to keep them from barking for food. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.216.160.225 (talk) 13:59, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

That story is wrong. There is also nothing to the urban legend that it was called "shoo fly" because houseflies were attracted to it. It's named after a brand of molasses from Philadelphia. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:51, 18 April 2021 (UTC)

If this is indeed the case, where is the evidence that the Shoofly Molasses Company existed, because I have been unable to find a single mention, outside of Shoofly Pie recipes?

Comparison of Shoofly pie with Chess pie

The article says that Shoofly pie is similar to Chess pie. A comparison of the photos of the two makes me doubt it. Should this article be edited on this point? Has anybody eaten both so that they can make an informed judgement? Delicious way to do original research!Pete unseth (talk) 21:06, 2 July 2015 (UTC)

The two are not at all alike. Texture very different. The other two - Montgomery pie and the other one - don't look like wet or dry versions. I've not had those. You would come closer to origins if you looked at German or Swiss pies rather than English pies.Dawn202 (talk) 23:46, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

@Pete unseth, I don't know if you're still interested in this question, but the sources compare these pies because neither of them require "special" ingredients (such as a particular kind of fruit). Both shoofly and chess pies (in their traditional forms) use ingredients that the home baker in the areas where they originated almost always had on hand. Chess pie would have been somewhat seasonal (eggs and cream), but shoofly could be made at any time, even if the cow had dried up and the hens had stopped laying. WhatamIdoing (talk) 00:07, 19 April 2021 (UTC)