The Bottom Line: Sweet facts about pie!
The Full Story:
- In 1590, Robert Green’s “Arcadia” featured the first written record of a fruit pie. It read as follows: “Thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes.”
- Shoo-fly pie, made of molasses, was originally used to attract flies from the kitchen.
- Wealthy Englishmen enjoyed “Surprise Pies.” As the pie was cut, a live creature would pop out.
- Oliver Cromwell banned pie in 1644, decrying it as a pagan form of pleasure. For the next sixteen years, heroic English rebels stuffed themselves with pies in secret. In 1660, Charles II reversed the pie ban, along with Cromwell’s ban on Christmas. (Yes, Cromwell banned pie and He might as well have banned stuffed animals and happiness while he was at it.)
- American Puritans also banned pies, and “inveigh[ed] against Christmas Pye, as an Invention of the Scarlet Whore of Babylon…the Devil and all his Works.”
- Pies were originally oblong, and looked like mangers. A Christ child made of pastry would be placed inside.
- Later, pie became a cherished American tradition. When a northern Physician claimed that pie was not good for the health of Americans, the “New Orleans Daily States” replied: “The republican dynasty at Washington may overthrow the federal constitution, the rights of the states and pluck the stars from the blue field of the national ensign, but the mince pie will continue to be the nations comfort and pride.” This is also how I feel when my doctor tells me to eat healthy.
- In 1909, President Taft was gifted with a pie that weighed 92-pounds in a large oak case. President Taft wondered for a moment whether the sender was trying to hint at something.
- The original “pie in the face” gag occurred in 1909 film, “Mr. Flip.” A pie is pushed into the face of silent movie actor Ben Turpin after he takes liberties with a woman. The largest pie fight award goes to the 1965 movie “The Great Race,” which took five days to shoot a scene involving four thousand pies.
- 90% of Americans consider pie to be one of the “simple pleasures in life,” according to the American Pie Council. Also, we have an American Pie Council.
- One out of five Americans admit to eating a whole pie by themselves. In other news, four out of five Americans are liars.
- Carl Sagan famously said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” This is why apple pie creation is traditionally left to all-powerful beings like grandmothers and the people who run Sara Lee Corporation.
- Paula Deen famously said, “I don’t want to spend my life not having good food go into my pie hole. That hole was made for pies.”