GIMME A SLICE
Apple pie may not be your favorite dessert, but most people like it well enough to eat a slice when offered one. It’s a classic, and beloved in all of its forms. Though, of course, everyone has their favorite – and you do not want to find yourself in the middle of an argument between the crumb-top and double-crust folks. Never mind ice cream versus sharp cheddar cheese.
Apple pie has been a thing for a very long time; we’ve have been eating it since at least the 1300s.
Geoffrey Chaucer, of all people, gets credit for writing down the first recipe, in 1389. But, like many other household staples passed down through the mists of time, it’s fair to assume that unsung women had been making it for a long time before that. Pie actually started as a way to preserve fresh fruit in a portable form. Early crusts weren’t supposed to be especially tasty; some were made of nothing but flour, water, and salt, with the idea that they might not even be eaten at all!
When the British came to the New World, they brought their pie recipes with them and so did other Europeans, including the Dutch and Scandinavians. At first, the local crabapples weren’t much good for pie, but they soon brought over cuttings and seeds from back home. Most of the apples went into mildly hard cider at first, because people needed something safe to drink, and cider was easier to make than the other possibilities, like beer or wine.
Still, once there were apples, apple pie wasn’t far behind.
This is probably the point where people really started caring about the taste of the crust – if you’re scratching out a life on a new continent with limited supplies, you’re not going to waste a crumb.
Nor are you going to feel obligated to save that pie for dessert. Meal times and menus were much different in the Colonial period, and even into the 19th century (another post for another day), and pie made a simple and filling breakfast, or an easy evening bite after a long day’s work. When people did get into the more modern idea of finishing a meal with a sweet, apple pie was sitting right there, looking tasty.
And it was sitting there looking just as wonderful when the advertising and newspaper writers needed a symbol of Americana. The first recorded use of “as American as apple pie” was in 1928, but it was a beloved symbol of the home front for soldiers in both World Wars. By World War II, the boys Over There said flat-out that they were fighting for “mom and apple pie.”
So what did mom put on that pie? Yes, we’ll wade into the cheese versus ice cream argument…just a little. I’m not picking sides, but cheese DOES have seniority; people in New England, especially, have been eating pie with cheddar for centuries. For most folks, ice cream has only been an option since the late 19th century. Still, it quickly became a very popular one. Pie a la mode, after all, translates to “pie in the current fashion.”
At least at my house, where the Professor prefers apple pie to birthday cake, the only bad pie is no pie.
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
Apple pie has been a thing for a very long time; we’ve have been eating it since at least the 1300s.
Geoffrey Chaucer, of all people, gets credit for writing down the first recipe, in 1389. But, like many other household staples passed down through the mists of time, it’s fair to assume that unsung women had been making it for a long time before that. Pie actually started as a way to preserve fresh fruit in a portable form. Early crusts weren’t supposed to be especially tasty; some were made of nothing but flour, water, and salt, with the idea that they might not even be eaten at all!
When the British came to the New World, they brought their pie recipes with them and so did other Europeans, including the Dutch and Scandinavians. At first, the local crabapples weren’t much good for pie, but they soon brought over cuttings and seeds from back home. Most of the apples went into mildly hard cider at first, because people needed something safe to drink, and cider was easier to make than the other possibilities, like beer or wine.
Still, once there were apples, apple pie wasn’t far behind.
This is probably the point where people really started caring about the taste of the crust – if you’re scratching out a life on a new continent with limited supplies, you’re not going to waste a crumb.
Nor are you going to feel obligated to save that pie for dessert. Meal times and menus were much different in the Colonial period, and even into the 19th century (another post for another day), and pie made a simple and filling breakfast, or an easy evening bite after a long day’s work. When people did get into the more modern idea of finishing a meal with a sweet, apple pie was sitting right there, looking tasty.
And it was sitting there looking just as wonderful when the advertising and newspaper writers needed a symbol of Americana. The first recorded use of “as American as apple pie” was in 1928, but it was a beloved symbol of the home front for soldiers in both World Wars. By World War II, the boys Over There said flat-out that they were fighting for “mom and apple pie.”
So what did mom put on that pie? Yes, we’ll wade into the cheese versus ice cream argument…just a little. I’m not picking sides, but cheese DOES have seniority; people in New England, especially, have been eating pie with cheddar for centuries. For most folks, ice cream has only been an option since the late 19th century. Still, it quickly became a very popular one. Pie a la mode, after all, translates to “pie in the current fashion.”
At least at my house, where the Professor prefers apple pie to birthday cake, the only bad pie is no pie.
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments!
date
newest »
newest »
I grew up enjoying The Legend of Johnny Appleseed, an animated short musical segment from Walt Disney's 1948 film Melody Time narrated and sung by Dennis Day.
John Chapman was an eccentric frontier nurseryman who established orchards throughout the American Midwest. He became the basis of the folk hero Johnny Appleseed, who has been the subject of countless stories, movies and works of art.
Chapman travelled widely, particularly in Pennsylvania and Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Ontario, as well as the northern counties of West Virginia pursuing his profession. While the legend of Johnny Appleseed suggests that his planting was random, there was a firm economic basis for Chapman's behaviour. After several years, he established nurseries and returned to sell off the orchard and the surrounding land.
The trees that Chapman planted had multiple purposes, although they did not yield edible fruit. The small, tart apples his orchards produced were useful primarily to make hard cider and applejack. Orchards also served the critical legal purpose of establishing land claims along the frontier. Consequently, Chapman owned around 1,200 acres of valuable land at his death.
The apples that Chapman brought to the frontier were completely distinct from those available at any modern grocery store or farmers' market, and they weren't primarily used for eating—they were used to make America's beverage of choice at the time, hard apple cider.