A slice cut from an apple pie

A pie is an English baked food, with a baked shell usually made of pastry dough that covers or completely contains a filling of fruit, meat, fish, vegetables, cheeses, creams, chocolate, custards, nuts, or other sweet or savoury ingredients. Pies can be either "filled", where a dish is covered by pastry and the filling is placed on top of that, "top-crust," where the filling is placed in a dish and covered with a pastry/potato mash top before baking, or "two-crust," with the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell.

Types of pies

Some pies have only a bottom crust, generally if they have a sweet filling that does not require cooking. These bottom-crust-only pies may be known as tarts or tartlets. An example of a bottom-crust-only pie that is savoury rather than sweet is a quiche. Tarte Tatin is a one-crust fruit pie that is served upside-down, with the crust underneath. Blind-baking is used to develop a crust's crispiness, and keep it from becoming soggy under the burden of a very liquid filling. If the crust of the pie requires much more cooking than the chosen filling, it may also be blind-baked before the filling is added and then only briefly cooked or refrigerated. Pie fillings range in size from tiny bite-size party pies or small tartlets, to single-serve pies (e.g. a pasty) and larger pies baked in a dish and eaten by the slice. The type of pastry used depends on the filling. It may be either a butter-rich flaky or puff pastry, a sturdy shortcrust pastry, or, in the case of savoury pies, a hot water crust pastry.

Regional variations

Meat pies with fillings such as steak and cheese, steak and kidney, minced beef or chicken and mushroom are popular in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand as take-away snacks. They are also served with chips as an alternative to fish and chips at British chip shops. The residents of Wigan are so renowned for their preference for this food-stuff that they are often referred to as "Pie Eaters"^{[citation needed]} (though the historical reasons for this title are disputed). In honour of this, the main ingredient of a 'Wigan kebab' is the pie, which is placed in a barm cake to make up the popular local delicacy. The combination of pie and mash is traditionally associated with London. Shepherd's pie (which does not involve pastry) is also a favourite amongst people throughout Britain.

In contrast to other meat pies which are served hot, Pork Pies generally have a very high fat content and are always served cold.^{[citation needed]}

These meat pies contain beef and gravy in a shortcrust piecase, often with a flakey top. Many bakeries and specialty stores sell gourmet pies for the more discriminating customer. A peculiarity of Adelaide cuisine in the Pie floater.

Pot pies with a flaky crust and bottom are also a popular American dish, typically with a filling of meat (particularly beef, chicken or turkey), gravy, and mixed vegetables (potatoes, carrots and peas). Frozen pot pies are often sold in individual serving size.

Fruit pies may be served with a scoop of ice cream, a style known in North America as à la mode. Apple pie is a traditional choice, though any pie with sweet fillings may be served à la mode. This combination, and possibly the name as well, is thought to have been popularized in the mid-1890s in the United States.^[1]

Pie throwing

Cream filled or topped pies are favourite props for humour, particularly when aimed at the pompous. Throwing a pie in a person's face has been a staple of film comedy since the early days of the medium, and is often associated with clowns in popular culture. Pranksters have taken to targeting politicians and celebrities with their pies, an act called pieing. Activists sometimes engage in the pieing of political and social targets as well. One such group is the Biotic Baking Brigade. "Pieing" can result in injury to the target and assault or more serious charges against the pie throwers. ^[2]

Savoury pies

Bacon and egg pie Butter pie Chicken and mushroom pie Corned beef pie Cottage pie Kalakukko

Meat pie Meat and potato pie Pasty Pizza pie Pork pie Pot pie

Quiche Scotch pie Shepherds' pie (mashed potato crust) Stargazy pie Steak pie Steak and kidney pie

A chicken pie with a traditional pie bird

Sweet pies

Some of these pies are pies in name only, such as the Boston cream pie, which is a cake. Many fruit and berry pies are very similar, varying only the fruit used in filling.

Apple pie Banoffee pie Banana cream pie Blackberry pie Blueberry pie Boston cream pie Buko pie Cheesecake Cherry pie

Chess pie Cream pie Custard pie Dutch apple pie Key lime pie Lemon meringue pie Mince pie Mock apple pie

Peach pie Pecan pie Peanut butter pie Pumpkin pie Rhubarb pie, Strawberry-rhubarb pie Shoofly pie - a pie filled with molasses Strawberry pie Sugar pie Sweet Potato Pie

A homemade cherry pie with a lattice top

External links

• The American Pie Council
• History of Pie
• Food Timeline, History Notes: Pie & Pastry

References

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Pie". Image Credit.

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