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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.
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.
The best cooking apples 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.
Though English apple pie recipes go back to the time of Chaucer (with raisins, and saffron to color the filling) 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. American apple pie recipes, both manuscript and printed, date back only 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, which could be seen as ironic, given that apple pie is not particularly American. It may be that "American" in this context does not mean "invented in America" or suchlike, but instead "apple pie" is used as a symbol of what is folksy and wholesome, and therefore "American". This could be compared to the use of the expression "that's not Christian", which should not be taken literally but instead means "that is cruel or immoral behaviour".
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.
Pop culture references
In the movie American Pie, the pie is used as a prop gag of sorts.
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.
- Applie Pie Nutritional Information