Type | Pie |
---|---|
Place of origin | England |
Main ingredients | Pie crust, eggs, butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, corn meal |
Variations | Lemon chess pie, vinegar pie |
Chess pie is a dessert with a filling composed mainly of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes milk, characteristic of Southern United States cuisine. [1]
Jefferson Davis pie is similar to chess pie, but Jefferson Davis pie may also contain spices, nuts, or dried fruits and is usually topped with meringue. [2]
It's unknown where the name chess pie came from, although there are several well-known theories. [3] The most likely is "chess-cake pie", as in English cheese cake pie, became chess pie over time. [4] Martha Washington's Chess Cake recipe is very similar to today's chess pie. [5] [6] The 1881 cookbook Buckeye Cookery—With Hints on Practical Housekeeping included a recipe submitted by Mrs. J. Carson of Glendale, Minnesota. [7] The recipe maintained the basic custard ingredients of eggs, butter, and sugar, but the egg whites were whipped into a meringue and spread on top. [8]
One of the most popular theories is that it is an eggcorn of "It's just pie" due to a misinterpretation of the pronunciation "It's jes' pie" in Southern American English. The pie was thought to be so simple any home cook with eggs, butter and sugar would know what to do. [6] [9] [10]
It is the South's most searched for Thanksgiving Pie. [11] Despite the pie's iconic status in the South, no recipe for "Chess Pie" appears in the first Southern cookbook, Mary Randolph's 1824 The Virginia Housewife . One food historian explains the early recipes for transparent pudding, such as "Mary Randolph's Transparent Pudding" (containing no milk) in the 1825 edition are "for all intents and purposes chess pie". Recipes for "Chess Pie" made without milk can be found in early 20th-century cookbooks. [12]
Variations of the chess pie include transparent pie, molasses pie, brown sugar pie, syrup pie, and vinegar pie. [13]
The basic chess pie recipe calls for the preparation of a single crust and a filling composed of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs and milk or condensed milk. Some variations call for the addition of cornmeal as a thickener. Many recipes call for an acid such as vinegar, buttermilk, or lemon juice. [14] [15]
Recipes dating from the 19th century typically including eggs, butter, sugar, and vinegar baked in a pie crust, with regional variations. [16]
In addition to standard chess pie, other flavor variations include lemon, coconut, and chocolate chess pie. [17] Some nut pies, including some pecan, fall under the category of chess pies. [18] Traditional pecan pie recipes do not include milk or condensed milk in the filling, and are typically regarded as a type of sugar pie similar to British treacle rather than a milk-containing custard (see Pecan pie § Variations).
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit, nuts, fruit preserves, brown sugar, sweetened vegetables, or with thicker fillings based on eggs and dairy. Savoury pies may be filled with meat, eggs and cheese or a mixture of meat and vegetables.
Meringue is a type of dessert or candy, of French origin, traditionally made from whipped egg whites and sugar, and occasionally an acidic ingredient such as lemon, vinegar, or cream of tartar. A binding agent such as salt, flour or gelatin may also be added to the eggs. The key to the formation of a good meringue is the formation of stiff peaks by denaturing the protein ovalbumin via mechanical shear.
Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine is the typical and traditional fare of the Pennsylvania Dutch.
Pecan pie is a pie of pecan nuts mixed with a filling of eggs, butter and sugar. Variations may include white or brown sugar, cane syrup, sugar syrup, molasses, maple syrup, or honey. It is commonly served at holiday meals in the United States and is considered a specialty of Southern U.S. origin. Most pecan pie recipes include salt and vanilla as flavorings. Pecan pie may be served with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream or hard sauce.
Queen of Puddings is a traditional British dessert, consisting of a baked, breadcrumb-thickened egg mixture, spread with jam and topped with meringue. Similar recipes are called Monmouth Pudding and Manchester Pudding.
A chiffon cake is a very light cake made with vegetable oil, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder, and flavorings.
Lane cake, also known as prize cake or Alabama Lane cake, is a bourbon-laced baked cake traditional in the American South. It was invented or popularized by Emma Rylander Lane (1856–1904), a native and long-time resident of Americus, Georgia, who developed the recipe while living in Clayton, Alabama, in the 1890s. She published the original recipe in Some Good Things to Eat (1898). Her original recipe included 8 egg whites, 1 cup butter, 1 cup sweet milk, 2 cups sifted sugar, 3 ¼ cups sifted flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 1 tablespoon vanilla and called for the layers to be baked in pie tins lined with ungreased brown paper rather than in cake pans. The filling called for 8 egg yolks, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup seeded raisins, 1 wine-glass of whiskey or brandy, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
Fruit curd is a dessert spread and topping. It is usually made with citrus fruit, though may be made with other fruits. Curds are often used as spreads and as flavourings.
Buttermilk pie is a pie in American cuisine. Associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States, it is one of the desperation pies, made using simple, staple ingredients.
The poppy seed roll is a pastry consisting of a roll of sweet yeast bread with a dense, rich, bittersweet filling of poppy seed. An alternative filling is a paste of minced walnuts, or minced chestnuts.
Sponge cake is a light cake made with eggs, flour and sugar, sometimes leavened with baking powder. Some sponge cakes do not contain egg yolks, like angel food cake, but most of them do. Sponge cakes, leavened with beaten eggs, originated during the Renaissance, possibly in Spain. The sponge cake is thought to be one of the first non-yeasted cakes, and the earliest attested sponge cake recipe in English is found in a book by the English poet Gervase Markham, The English Huswife, Containing the Inward and Outward Virtues Which Ought to Be in a Complete Woman (1615). Still, the cake was much more like a cracker: thin and crispy. Sponge cakes became the cake recognised today when bakers started using beaten eggs as a rising agent in the mid-18th century. The Victorian creation of baking powder by English food manufacturer Alfred Bird in 1843 allowed the addition of butter to the traditional sponge recipe, resulting in the creation of the Victoria sponge. Cakes are available in many flavours and have many recipes as well. Sponge cakes have become snack cakes via the Twinkie.
Peanut pie, is a pie that is part of the cuisine of the Southern United States, in the Tidewater region, where peanuts are a common crop.
Pie in American cuisine has roots in English cuisine and has evolved over centuries to adapt to American cultural tastes and ingredients. The creation of flaky pie crust shortened with lard is credited to American innovation.
Butterscotch pie is a pie in American cuisine made by cooking brown sugar with egg yolks, corn starch, milk or cream, and butter to make a butterscotch custard pie filling which is topped with meringue and browned in the oven. Variations on the basic pie can be made with grated chocolate or orange rind which are sprinkled on the warm filling under the meringue topping.
Green tomato pie is a pie in American cuisine that can be made like other fruit pies by sprinkling sugar, flour, cinnamon and other spices or raisins over sliced tomatoes and pieces of butter, or by simply cooking the ingredients on the stovetop before baking in a pastry-lined dish.