The winter holidays are an invitation to enjoy a warm, satisfying meal capped by a sweet bite of your favorite dessert. Is it something “utterly deadly” or a familiar friend that has graced the dinner table year after year? For our third annual pie tribute, Leigh and Kim leave no crust unturned as they serve up some deep dish on the history and food traditions surrounding two perennial pie favorites: pecan and mincemeat.
The tradition of Pie
Pies have claimed their stake at the feast table long before there was a national celebration of Thanksgiving. Largely originating in England, pies both small and large served royals and peasants alike with fillings of meat, fruits, and spices from faraway lands. Immigrants from Great Britain brought pie traditions over the Atlantic and expanded their repertoire with new fruits, nuts, and game.
Nut so hard as to require a stone to crack
Pecan pie - an American South classic pie - is one such newcomer. As Leigh explains it, the sweet meat inside the hardy nutshell was previously known only to the Native American people inhabiting the pecan’s peak growth areas along the Mississippi River and its tributaries north to Illinois and Iowa and south to the Gulf Coast. Pecans didn’t turn into the pie darling that we love today - the first recipes for pecan pie in the early 19th Century more closely resembled a meringue pie. A certain corn syrup merchant is credited for changing around our conceptualization of what we now consider a classic pecan pie.
Misplaced Nostalgia
Curiosity, and a misplaced sense of nostalgia, drew Kim towards a thorough examination of the mincemeat pie. Mincemeat once graced royal coronation tables and has since become synonymous with a well-provisioned Christmas table, so much so that the pastries were once banned by Puritan governments in England and the United States in the 17th Century for being too decadent! These early pies earned their name from the process and product of their creation - minced meats mixed with fruits and spices served up in trencher or coffin pies (named for their shape!) - but have since gone largely vegetarian.
Comfort Foods Transcript
🎧 Click here for the full, interactive transcript of this episode 🎧
A Pie Calendar for 2023
Be inspired by The Heritage Cookbook Project 2023 Pie Calendar. Featuring 12 original pie illustrations by Leigh Olson. Each card includes a corresponding recipe from her recipe box collection.
4 x 6-inches
2.5 inch wooden easel
Created and printed in the USA
Sources We Found Helpful for this Episode
Books We Think You’ll Enjoy Reading
Oxford Companion to Food by Alan Davidson
Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink by Andrew Smith
Art of the Pie: A Practical Guide to Homemade Crusts, Fillings, and Life by Kate McDermott
Pie Camp: The Skills You Need to Make Any Pie You Want by Kate McDermott
Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management: The 1861 Classic with Advice on Cooking, Cleaning, Childrearing, Entertaining, and More by Isabella Beeton (contains a recipe for mincemeat)
Recipes You Really Need to Try
Pumpkin Pecan Pie from Family Spice
Gluten-Free Pecan Pie from Fearless Dining
Episodes We Think You’ll Like
Please don’t miss our other episodes devoted to pie:
Pie: Crazy Labels, Cockney Rhyming Slang, and Greek Melons (Episode 2)
Revisiting Pies: Desperation, Thrift, and Brand Campaigns (Episode 32)
And an unique take on mincemeat from our 2021 Alimentary Advent Calendar
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EP 53 In Pie We Crust: As We Eat’s 3rd Annual Pie Episode