11/11/2011
Johnny Miller
Fast Food on the Frontier
As settlers headed west, they (like the early colonists) had to make do with the available resources. And so their pies were filled with local crops like huckleberries and pecans, or in the case of biscuit dough “pie”—the fast food of the wagon trail—possum and prairie oysters (i.e., bison testicles). The flood of immigrant families settling on the Great Plains after the land rush quickly learned to make American “prairie pies”—the original hyper-local pies, bulging with rhubarb, mulberries, and peaches. When fruit was scarce, the settlers turned to “vinegar pie”—a mix of vinegar, butter, sugar, eggs, and water. Down south, sweet potato pie was inspired, it is said, by the nourishing African yams that were brought along to feed the slaves on cargo ships bound for the New World. The pie safe—a wooden cabinet with punched tin door panels to keep air in and insects out—became the Weber Grill of its day, a fixture on back porches across the country.
As American as ...
By the turn of the 20th century, pie had become the undisputed symbol of American plenty and national pride. Women were judged by the quality of their pie crust. Every county fair had a pie contest. And every country store sold “homemade” pie. A Vermont housewife, itemizing her baking for the year 1877, counted 421 pies. In Pennsylvania Dutch country, where farmers ate pie three times a day, a young man would often present an elaborately carved rolling pin as an engagement gift to his future wife.
Regarding a University of Indianapolis debate over which greater served mankind, pie or ice cream, a 1902 New York Times editorial wrote:
“Pie is the American synonym of prosperity, and its varying contents the calendar of the changing seasons. Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished. It is a significant historical fact that England’s glory was greatest in the days when her gallant sons ate pie.”
It’s unclear who coined the expression “as American as apple pie.” But the phrase has undoubtedly been with us awhile. Some say it was growers trying to push apple consumption during Prohibition, when hard cider was banned. One of the earliest recorded instances is attributed to an opera singer in Chicago, one Alice Gentle, who in 1921 solicited money from a millionaire to fund an American opera. The San Antonio Light reported Gentle saying that an American opera would be “as American as apple pie, wheat cakes, corn on the cob, one-night stands and mail-order houses.” Perhaps not surprisingly, only the apple pie part of the quote stuck. Later, during World War II, when GIs were asked what they were fighting for, the stock answer they always gave was “Mom and apple pie.”
As settlers headed west, they (like the early colonists) had to make do with the available resources. And so their pies were filled with local crops like huckleberries and pecans, or in the case of biscuit dough “pie”—the fast food of the wagon trail—possum and prairie oysters (i.e., bison testicles). The flood of immigrant families settling on the Great Plains after the land rush quickly learned to make American “prairie pies”—the original hyper-local pies, bulging with rhubarb, mulberries, and peaches. When fruit was scarce, the settlers turned to “vinegar pie”—a mix of vinegar, butter, sugar, eggs, and water. Down south, sweet potato pie was inspired, it is said, by the nourishing African yams that were brought along to feed the slaves on cargo ships bound for the New World. The pie safe—a wooden cabinet with punched tin door panels to keep air in and insects out—became the Weber Grill of its day, a fixture on back porches across the country.
As American as ...
By the turn of the 20th century, pie had become the undisputed symbol of American plenty and national pride. Women were judged by the quality of their pie crust. Every county fair had a pie contest. And every country store sold “homemade” pie. A Vermont housewife, itemizing her baking for the year 1877, counted 421 pies. In Pennsylvania Dutch country, where farmers ate pie three times a day, a young man would often present an elaborately carved rolling pin as an engagement gift to his future wife.
Regarding a University of Indianapolis debate over which greater served mankind, pie or ice cream, a 1902 New York Times editorial wrote:
“Pie is the American synonym of prosperity, and its varying contents the calendar of the changing seasons. Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished. It is a significant historical fact that England’s glory was greatest in the days when her gallant sons ate pie.”
It’s unclear who coined the expression “as American as apple pie.” But the phrase has undoubtedly been with us awhile. Some say it was growers trying to push apple consumption during Prohibition, when hard cider was banned. One of the earliest recorded instances is attributed to an opera singer in Chicago, one Alice Gentle, who in 1921 solicited money from a millionaire to fund an American opera. The San Antonio Light reported Gentle saying that an American opera would be “as American as apple pie, wheat cakes, corn on the cob, one-night stands and mail-order houses.” Perhaps not surprisingly, only the apple pie part of the quote stuck. Later, during World War II, when GIs were asked what they were fighting for, the stock answer they always gave was “Mom and apple pie.”
Common Pie Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them
The History of Pie
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