Apple pie

For to Make Tartys in Applis (1381)

In cooking, an apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling ingredient is apples. The pastry is generally used top-and-bottom, making a double-crust pie. An exception is the Tarte Tatin.

Ingredients

The best cooking apples (culinary apples, colloquially cookers), such as the Bramley, are crisp and acidic. The fruit for the pie can be fresh, canned, or reconstituted from dried apples. This affects the final texture, and the length of cooking time required, but it has no effect on the flavour of the pie. Dried or preserved apples were originally substituted at times when fresh fruit was unavailable.

English style

English apple pie recipes go back to the time of Chaucer (with raisins, and saffron to colour the filling). Cloves were also a popular addition.

Dutch style

Dutch apple pie (appeltaart or appelgebak) recipes go back a long way. There is a painting dated 1626 featuring such a pie. Dutch recipes typically also call for spice to be added and are often decorated in a lattice style.

American style

Aside from the obvious major ingredient, apple pies can have a great deal of variation. Some recipes incorporate spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg. They typically include sugar, and some recipes also use dried fruit (currants or sultanas). One variation of the apple pie uses fresh or frozen blackberry. Some people add a slice or two of cheddar cheese. Others say the pie is incomplete without a few slices of quince.

Apple pie in American Culture

Apple pie shown with American cultural icons

In America the apple pie had to wait for the carefully planted pips, brought over protected in barrels, to bear fruit. In the meantime the colonists were more likely to make meat pies or "pasties" than fruit, and their main use for apples, once their planted pips finally bore fruit, was to make cider. There are American apple pie recipes both manuscript and printed, that date to the 18th century. Apple pie in the United States is a highly popular dessert, often served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, as apple pie à la mode. "As American as apple pie" is a common saying in the United States, perhaps due to this association.¹

A so-called mock apple pie using crackers was apparently invented by pioneers on the move during the nineteenth century who were bereft of apples. In the 1930s, and for many years afterwards, Ritz Crackers promoted a recipe for mock apple pie using their product, along with sugar and various spices. Although opinion is sharply divided on its merits, many people feel that its taste and texture are surprisingly close to the authentic pie.

¹The full expression is usually stated as "As American as motherhood and apple pie", which is clearly metaphorical in intent, rather than literally trying to claim origin. Critics might argue that the expression reinforces gender stereotypes (mom staying at home baking, while pop goes out to work), but it is hard to deny this metaphor's iconic status in American culture.

Pop culture references

In the movie American Pie, the pie is used as a prop gag of sorts.

See also

• Apfelstrudel, an Austrian pie-like dish made with dough, apples, sugar and spices.

External links

• Food Timeline history Notes: Apple Pie
• Apple Pie Recipe With Lots of Pictures and Detailed Instructions on How to Make an Apple Pie.
• Apple Pie Nutritional Information