A Brief History of Pie Hating
by Samantha Machado, Creative Programming and Digital Media Intern
What is pie? You might say it’s a baked dish with a pastry crust and a filling. You might then get into a debate about whether a tart is a pie or whether fried hand-pies count because of their alternate cooking method. But you probably wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that pie is an “unmoral food” or “an American evil.” Those are two real descriptors Kate Masterson used in a 1902 New York Times article to describe pie.
Pies have been around for a long time. The ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks, and ancient Romans all made pies. Most of the history of pie is uncontroversial. Aside from the chunk of time when pies had tough, thick, heavy and generally unpleasant crusts called “coffins” (also spelled “coffyn”), the pie has been a beloved staple of most cultures.
A 1916 advertisement for None Such Mince Meat
You can still buy None Such Mince Meat, though the company no longer put real meat in the product.
Public domain image from The Ladies Home Journal. 1916. vol. 33. p. 75. Via Hathi Trust Digital Library.
At the end of the 19th-century, that changed. Though pie was still beloved by traditionalists, there were a growing number of food reformers who really hated pies and didn’t think anyone should eat them.
Is Pie Bad For You?
There are a few possible reasons for pie hating. Sarah Tyson Rorer wrote two articles about how much she hated pie for The Ladies' Home Journal. Rorer believed in simple dishes. She thought decadent eating was a fast track to indigestion and early death. Though the individual ingredients in pies may be healthy, Rorer believed that the process of mixing them all together and cooking them made even the most nutritious foods “worse than useless.”
But her main problem with pie was crust. Mixing fats with starches, Rorer believed, made food too complex in a way that caused indigestion. Heating up fats was just as bad and, at least according to Rorer, had the same effects. And whether you used lard or butter made no difference in digestion or health:
“As far as pie is concerned it would be no more wholesome made from butter than from lard. It certainly would be more palatable. The crust would be light and flaky, but each one of these little flakes, no matter how thin, is dense and difficult of digestion.”
So what does Rorer think you should have instead of pie? Well, she thinks that most pie fillings can be baked in a dish without any crust and still be enjoyed. If you insist on something starchy to go with your filling, she suggests two butter-less cake recipes: “Dutch Apple Cake” and “Roly-Poly.”
Pie and Class
Though it’s never the focus of her writing, Rorer does suggest that another reason pies are bad is because they require “wives, daughters and maids [to work for] hours of fatiguing labor for which they get little credit.”
While pie might take more effort than simply putting pie filling in a dish and baking it, it’s not that complicated of a dish. And before all the non-bakers reading this get up in arms about their struggles with pie making, compare pie making to making a sponge cake or a Charlotte Russe. Pie looks good without having to put in too much work.
Rudyard Kipling
Public domain image from the biography Rudyard Kipling by John Palmer.
Pies are utilitarian, transportable, and convenient. As a result, pie eating in late 19th- and early 20th-century America came to be associated with the lower classes. When Rudyard Kipling described the Northeast as “the great American pie belt.” Though pie loving traditionalists were proud of that title, Kipling did not mean it in a nice way. He added, “Have you ever considered the moral and physical condition of a people which eats pie for breakfast, pie for dinner, pie for supper [. . .] ? Dyspepsia is endemic you can’t expect anything else.”
Kipling was dismissive of rural America and thought it was lacking English comforts. He viewed pie similarly. Americans had changed pie. It was no longer just the traditional British mince meat pie. No, pie became a distinctly American beast. Scarcity of flour in the colonies led directly to the thinner flakier pie crusts we’re used to today. It saved rations and it tasted better. So Kipling’s anti-pie sentiments demonstrated his dedication to English tradition and distaste for American innovation. He viewed Americans’ pie-eating habits as reflective of their lower status and their general inferiority.
But the pie belt refused to be insulted. Americans had many famous pie eaters to call on including Nathaniel Hawthorne, John and Abigail Adams, Louisa May Alcott, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who allegedly ate pie for breakfast.
Americans didn’t seem to mind living in the “pie belt” or being labelled pie eaters. With the outbreak of World War 1, pie eating in America became a patriotic pastime, if not duty, in America. The phrase “as American as apple pie” was coined in a 1924 advertisement. The world was changing and so were attitudes towards pie.
Though Canada is a bit north of the pie belt, we still hold our own in pie history. Tortière, tarte au sucre, and rappie pie are just a few Canadian classics. (Is rappie pie still a pie even though it doesn’t have a pastry crust?)
No matter how you slice it, pie is beloved and here to stay.
References
“Concerning the British Empire and Other Matters: A Talk with Mr. Rudyard Kipling.” The Sydney Morning Herald. 20 June 1894. p. 3.
“The Great Pie Belt.” The Cambridge Tribune. 23 November 1895. Vol. XVIII, Number 37, 23, p. 4. Via Cambridge Public Library.
Kelsey-Sugg, Anna and Emma Nobel. “The history of the pie includes ancient Egypt, medieval England and Australia’s First Fleet.” ABC Australia. 17 June 2022.
Petrick, Gabriella. “Why Americans Love Their Apple Pie.” Smithsonian Mag. September 2019.
Rorer, S. T. “Why I am Opposed to Pies.” The Ladies' Home Journal. 1900. vol. 17, p. 28. Via the Hathi Trust Digital Library.
Rorer, S. T. “Why I Have No Cakes or Pies on My Table.” The Ladies' Home Journal. 1905. vol. 22, p. 37. Via the Hathi Trust Digital Library.
Siegel, Matt. “"Substantial, Satisfying, Hard to Digest.” How Apple Pie is Like America.” Lit Hub. 1 September 2021.