Chess pie

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Chess pie
Buttermilk Chess Pie, August 2009.jpg
A slice of vanilla buttermilk chess pie
Type Pie
Place of originEngland
Main ingredientsPie crust, eggs, butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, corn meal
VariationsLemon 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] It is similar to pecan pie without any nuts. [1]

Contents

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]

History

Chess pie was brought from England originally and was found in New England as well as Virginia. [2] [3] It has some similarities to English lemon curd pie. [4]

It is likely derived from recipes for cheeseless cheesecake that appeared in cookbooks as early as the 17th century, such as in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery and the English A True Gentlewoman's Delight (1653). [5] A recipe explicitly called chess pie appeared in the 1877 cookbook by Estelle Woods Wilcox, Buckeye Cookery. [5] [6]

Today chess pie is most commonly associated as a dessert of the American South. [4] Common types of chess pie are buttermilk, chocolate, lemon, and nut.[ citation needed ]

Name

Several derivations of the name chess pie have been proposed. The most likely is a derivation of cheese pie, as early cookbooks grouped cheesecakes together with pies made of curd or custard. [7] [8] [9] [6] Other possible derivations include: the town of Chester, England; [5] chest pie, from pie chest , a type of furniture used to store pies prior to home refrigeration; or an eggcorn of "It's just pie" due to a misinterpretation of the pronunciation "It's jes' pie" in Southern American English. [10] [4]

Composition

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. [11] [8]

In addition to standard chess pie, other flavor variations include lemon, coconut, and chocolate chess pie. [12] Some nut pies, including some pecan, fall under the category of chess pies. [13] 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).

See also

Related Research Articles

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Dessert is a course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as cake, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly savory to create desserts. In some parts of the world there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pie</span> Baked, filled pastry

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple pie</span> Dessert pie made with apples

An apple pie is a fruit pie in which the principal filling is apples. Apple pie is often served with whipped cream, ice cream, custard or cheddar cheese. It is generally double-crusted, with pastry both above and below the filling; the upper crust may be solid or latticed. The bottom crust may be baked separately ("blind") to prevent it from getting soggy. Deep-dish apple pie often has a top crust only. Tarte Tatin is baked with the crust on top, but served with it on the bottom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lemon meringue pie</span> Pie topped with meringue

Lemon meringue pie is a dessert pie consisting of a shortened pastry base filled with lemon curd and topped with meringue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheesecake</span> Cheese-based dessert

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Custard pie</span> Pastry container with a sweet egg mixture

A custard pie is any type of uncooked custard mixture added to an uncooked or partially cooked crust and baked together. In North America, custard pie commonly refers to a plain mixture of milk, eggs, sugar, salt, vanilla extract and sometimes nutmeg combined with a pie crust. It is distinctly different from a cream pie, which contains cooked custard poured into a cooled, precooked crust. In the United Kingdom, the comical or political act of pieing is conventionally done with a "custard pie". Some common custard pies include pumpkin pie, lemon and buttermilk chess pie, coconut cream pie, and buko pie. True custard is defined as a liquid thickened with eggs. The often large number of whole eggs in custard pie make it very rich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pecan pie</span> Pie made primarily with corn syrup and pecans

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melktert</span> South African tart

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fruit curd</span> Dessert spread and topping

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treacle tart</span> British dessert

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Custard tart</span> Baked dessert consisting of an egg custard-filled pastry crust

Custard tarts or flan pâtissier/parisien are a baked pastry consisting of an outer pastry crust filled with egg custard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buttermilk pie</span> Type of desperation pie

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sponge cake</span> Type of cake

Sponge cake is a light cake made with egg whites, 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.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 Weinstein, Jay (2007). "Karo Syrup". In Smith, Andrew F. (ed.). The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Oxford. p. 339. ISBN   978-0-19-530796-2. OCLC   71833329.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. 1 2 Kaufman, Cathy K. (2007). "Pastries". In Smith, Andrew F. (ed.). The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink. Oxford. p. 438. ISBN   978-0-19-530796-2. OCLC   71833329.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. Beard, James (28 February 2009). "Chess Pie or Tarts". James Beard's American Cookery. Little, Brown. ISBN   978-0-316-06981-6. OCLC   1302952840. Brought from England and prevalent mostly in New England and the Virginias, this was served more as a tea accompaniment than as a dessert pie. Traditionally it is made in patty pans as tarts.
  4. 1 2 3 "Chess Pie Recipes: Taste of the South". Southern Living. Retrieved 2013-05-13.
  5. 1 2 3 Olver, Lynne. "Food Timeline: history notes-pie & pastry". The Food Timeline . Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  6. 1 2 Stradley, Linda (2015-05-19). "Chess Pie history". What's Cooking America. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  7. Belk, Sarah (1991). Around the Southern Table. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 367–8). Quoted in "Chess pie". The Food Timeline. Lynne Olver.
  8. 1 2 "Classic Chess Pie". Southern Living. Meredith Home Group. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  9. "Chess Pie". Allrecipies.com. Retrieved 6 February 2022.
  10. Linda (2017). "Chess Pie History". What's Cooking America. Retrieved 2017-06-18.
  11. "Southern Chess Pie: Tips and Variations". The Spruce. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  12. Schneider, Crady (2017-03-14). "Chess Pie: Nothing More Southern". Porter Briggs. Archived from the original on 2018-02-22. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
  13. "Everything You Need to Know About Classic American Pie". Eater. Retrieved 2018-02-21.