Apple pie is a classic American-style dessert that is a must during the Christmas season. It is far from ordinary to look at: strips of pastry are woven into a lattice and laid over the apple filling, then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon for extra crunch and a sweet, fragrant aroma.
But how did this delicious apple pie come to be?
A Brief History of Apple Pie
Long before the Pilgrims sailed to the New World, European and Asian cultures had been including apples in their food for thousands of years. The first mention of apples comes from Alexander the Great in 328 BCE: he noticed dwarf apples in Kazakhstan and brought them back to Macedonia to cultivate. By the late 12th century, sweet and savoury pies were already an important part of English food culture, so it is no surprise that apples made their way into these pastries. However, they were usually made without sugar because of its high price. Later, the Dutch turned the apple pie into a lattice-topped pastry, and within a few centuries pies could be found all over Europe, including Italy, Germany and France.
North America was home to only one native apple, the crabapple. It was popularised by the story of Johnny Appleseed, but a common misconception is that he produced beautiful, tasty eating apples. In fact, the crabapple is a sour, inedible fruit, which Appleseed is thought to have used for making hard cider. Through overseas trade routes, ships brought modern apple trees in the mid-1600s, but because there was no way to pollinate the flowers, the trees did not bear fruit until honeybees were introduced a few decades later.
Becoming an American Icon
America saw its first apple pie in 1697, according to Allen Metcalf's book America in So Many Words. With Swedish, Dutch and English immigrants, apple pie quickly became part of American cooking. The dish was proclaimed uniquely American by the settlers rather than by any recognition of its true cultural origins. America's first cookbook, American Cookery, included two recipes for apple pie and made no claim about the recipe's roots. By the turn of the 20th century, the pie was recognised as an important part of American culture. In the early 1920s it began to appear in literature, and by the 1940s "American as apple pie" had become a patriotic expression. While apple pie may not be truly American in origin, its roots have been finely woven into the fabric of the nation's history and culture.
Apple pie is a fruit pie whose main ingredient is apple. It is usually eaten as a dessert, sometimes topped with whipped cream or ice cream, or enjoyed with cheddar cheese, depending on each person's taste and creativity.
