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81-452: 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 (as in an apple pie ), nuts ( pecan pie ), fruit preserves ( jam tart ), brown sugar ( sugar pie ), sweetened vegetables ( rhubarb pie ), or with thicker fillings based on eggs and dairy (as in custard pie and cream pie ). Savoury pies may be filled with meat (as in

162-412: A steak pie or a Jamaican patty ), eggs and cheese (such as quiches or British flans ) or a mixture of meat and vegetables ( pot pie ). Pies are defined by their crusts . A filled pie (also single-crust or bottom-crust ), has pastry lining the baking dish, and the filling is placed on top of the pastry but left open. A top-crust pie has the filling in the bottom of the dish and is covered with

243-465: A "...moyst, thick, tough, course and long-lasting crust, and therefore of all other your Rye paste is best for that purpose.” The largest pies of the era were "standing pies", which were baked with steam holes, which were then sealed with melted butter (which would harden to seal the pie), and then eaten over several months. During the Puritan era of Oliver Cromwell , some sources claim mince pie eating

324-401: A "hygienic pie" which had "apple slices or a pumpkin custard baked in biscuit dough". In 1866, Harper's Magazine included an article by C.W. Gesner that stated that although we "...cry for pie when we are infants", "Pie kills us finally", as the "heavy crust" cannot be digested. Another factor that decreased the popularity of pies was industrialization and increasing movement of women into

405-774: A brick bread oven, and because any mixture of ingredients could be added to pies to "stretch" their "meager provisions". The apple pie made with American apples became popular, because apples were easy to dry and store in barrels over the winter. Early American pies had thick, heavy crusts made with rough flour and suet. As pioneers spread westward, pies continued to be an important supply of food; while apple pies made from dried apples were popular, cooks often had to use fillers or substitutes to stretch out their barrels of apples, such as crushed crackers, vinegar-soaked potatoes, sour green tomatoes and soft-shelled river turtle meat. The first Thanksgiving feast included fowl and venison, which may have been included in pies. Colonists appreciated

486-497: A completely different manuscript, there is also a very abbreviated epitome entitled Apici excerpta a Vinidario , a "pocket Apicius" by "an illustrious man" named Vinidarius , made as late as the Carolingian era . The Vinidarius of this book may have been a Goth, in which case his Gothic name may have been Vinithaharjis (𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌹𐌸𐌰𐌷𐌰𐍂𐌾𐌹𐍃), but this is only conjecture. Despite being called "illustrious", nothing about him

567-463: A flaky crust and bottom are also a popular 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 pie à la mode . Many sweet pies are served this way. Apple pie is

648-434: A fundamental skill and is important for nutrition, as baked goods, especially bread, are a common and important food, both from an economic and cultural point of view. A person who prepares baked goods as a profession is called a baker . All types of food can be baked, but some require special care and protection from direct heat. Various techniques have been developed to provide this protection. In addition to bread, baking

729-468: A huge pie that could serve a large group. In the Georgian era, sweetened pies of meat and dried fruits began to become less popular. In recipe books of the period sweet veal, sweet lamb or sweet chicken pies are given alongside recipes for unsweetened alternatives with the same ingredients made for those who could "no longer stomach the sweetened flesh meats enjoyed by earlier generations". Pumpkin pie

810-508: A must for dry ingredients. Eleven events occur concurrently during baking, some of which (such as starch gelatinization) would not occur at room temperature. The dry heat of baking changes the form of starches in the food and causes its outer surfaces to brown, giving it an attractive appearance and taste. The browning is caused by the caramelization of sugars and the Maillard reaction . Maillard browning occurs when "sugars break down in

891-518: A number of different Roman cooks from the first century CE. Many of the recipes contain the ingredient silphium , which is speculated to have become extinct in the first century CE, so this supports the earlier date. However, based on textual analysis, the food scholar Bruno Laurioux believes that the surviving version only dates from the fifth century (that is, the end of the Roman Empire): "The history of De Re Coquinaria indeed belongs then to

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972-551: A pastry crust), which protects the food from direct heat and seals the natural juices inside. Meat, poultry , game , fish or vegetables can be prepared by baking en croûte . Well-known examples include Beef Wellington , where the beef is encased in pastry before baking; pâté en croûte , where the terrine is encased in pastry before baking; and the Vietnamese variant, a meat-filled pastry called pâté chaud . The en croûte method also allows meat to be baked by burying it in

1053-406: A pastry or other covering before baking. A two-crust pie has the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Shortcrust pastry is a typical kind of pastry used for pie crusts, but many things can be used, including baking powder biscuits , mashed potatoes , and crumbs . Pies can be a variety of sizes, ranging from bite-size to those designed for multiple servings. The first known use of

1134-416: A peacock-filled pie. The expressions "eat crow" and "four and 20 blackbirds" are sayings from the era when crow and blackbirds were eaten in pies. Cooked birds were frequently placed by European royal cooks on top of a large pie to identify its contents, leading to its later adaptation in pre-Victorian times as a porcelain ornament to release of steam. The apple pie was first referenced in writing in 1589, when

1215-740: A pie case. By 160 BC, Roman statesman Marcus Porcius Cato (234–149 BC), who wrote De Agri Cultura , notes the recipe for the most popular pie/cake called placenta . Also called libum by the Romans, it was more like a modern-day cheesecake on a pastry base, often used as an offering to the gods. With the development of the Roman Empire and its efficient road transport, pie cooking spread throughout Europe . Wealthy Romans combined many types of meats in their pies, including mussels and other seafood. Roman pie makers generally used vegetable oils, such as olive oil, to make their dough. Pies remained as

1296-568: A recipe for chicken pie was written on a tablet in Sumer . Pie pastry is believed to have originated in Ancient Greece . In the plays of Aristophanes (5th century BC), there are mentions of sweetmeats including small pastries filled with fruit. Nothing is known of the actual pastry used, but the Greeks certainly recognized the trade of pastry-cook as distinct from that of baker. When fat

1377-435: A removable top crust, hence the name pot pie . The first unequivocal reference to pie in a written source is in the 14th century ( Oxford English Dictionary sb pie ). The eating of mince pies during festive periods is a tradition that dates back to the 13th century, as the returning Crusaders brought pie recipes containing "meats, fruits and spices". Some pies contained cooked rabbits, frogs, crows, and pigeons. In 1390,

1458-1046: A respected profession because pastries were considered decadent, and Romans loved festivity and celebration. Thus, pastries were often cooked especially for large banquets, and any pastry cook who could invent new types of tasty treats was highly prized. Around 1 AD, there were more than three hundred pastry chefs in Rome, and Cato wrote about how they created all sorts of diverse foods and flourished professionally and socially because of their creations. Cato speaks of an enormous number of breads including; libum (cakes made with flour and honey, often sacrificed to gods ), placenta (groats and cress), spira (modern day flour pretzels), scibilata ( tortes ), savillum (sweet cake), and globus apherica ( fritters ). A great selection of these, with many different variations, different ingredients, and varied patterns, were often found at banquets and dining halls. The Romans baked bread in an oven with its own chimney, and had mills to grind grain into flour. A bakers' guild

1539-434: A result. In Paris, the first open-air café of baked goods was developed, and baking became an established art throughout the entire world. Every family used to prepare the bread for its own consumption, the trade of baking, not having yet taken shape. Mrs Beeton (1861) Baking eventually developed into a commercial industry using automated machinery which enabled more goods to be produced for widespread distribution. In

1620-430: A skilled pie cook by comparing the cook to a fortification builder who "...Makes citadels of curious fowl and fish" and makes "dry-ditches", "bulwark pies" and "ramparts of immortal crusts". In Gervase Markham's 1615 book The English Huswife , there is a pie recipe that calls for "an entire leg of mutton and three pounds of suet..., along with salt, cloves, mace, currants, raisins, prunes, dates, and orange peel", which made

1701-417: A staple of traveling and working peoples in the colder northern European countries, with regional variations based on both the locally grown and available meats, as well as the locally farmed cereal crop. In these colder countries, butter and lard were the main fats in use, which meant that pie cooks created dough that could be rolled flat and moulded into different shapes. The Cornish pasty is an adaptation of

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1782-617: 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 . Apple pie can be made with a variety of apples; cultivars such as the Golden Delicious , Pink Lady , Granny Smith , and Rome Beauty are popular for usage in pies. Cold pigeon pies and venison pasties appear in novels by Jane Austen , but also more generally in writing in

1863-624: A way that other foods were not. In 1806 Mrs Rundell in her Observations on Savoury Pies in A New System of Domestic Cookery stated that 'There are few articles of cookery more generally liked than relishing pies, if properly made'. Alexis Soyer , a celebrity cook of the 19th century said in his book Shilling Cookery for the People (1860) "From childhood we eat pies - from girlhood to boyhood we eat pies - in fact, pies in England may be considered as one of our best companions du voyage through life. It

1944-624: A wide range of newly developed sweet pies. Pies became more refined with subsequent waves of immigrants; the Pennsylvania Dutch contributed a more aromatic, spiced, and less-sweet style of pie-making; the French brought the approach of making pie with butter and a range of tart, galette and pâté (forcemeat of meat and fish in dough) recipes. Swedish immigrants in the plains states brought recipes for fish pie and berry pie; Finnish immigrants brought their recipes for pasties and meat pies. In

2025-420: Is added to a flour-water paste it becomes a pastry . The Romans made a plain pastry of flour, oil, and water to cover meats and fowls which were baked, thus keeping in the juices. The Roman approach of covering "...birds or hams with dough" has been called more of an attempt to prevent the meat from drying out during baking than an actual pie in the modern sense. The covering was not meant to be eaten. It filled

2106-541: Is given to their quality at formal events. They are also one of the main components of a tea party , including at nursery teas and high teas, a tradition which started in Victorian Britain, reportedly when Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford "grew tired of the sinking feeling which afflicted her every afternoon round 4 o'clock ... In 1840, she plucked up courage and asked for a tray of tea, bread and butter, and cake to be brought to her room. Once she had formed

2187-450: Is similar to recrystallization and is promoted by storage at cool temperatures, such as in a domestic refrigerator or freezer. Baking, especially of bread, holds special significance for many cultures. It is such a fundamental part of everyday food consumption that the children's nursery rhyme Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man takes baking as its subject. Baked goods are normally served at all kinds of parties and special attention

2268-423: Is the food of the heroic" and "no pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished". The slang expression "to eat humble pie" comes from the umble pie , which was made with chopped animal offal. "It's a piece of pie", meaning that something is easy, dates from 1889. "Pie-eyed", meaning drunk, dates from 1904. The expression "pie in the sky", to refer to an unlikely proposal or idea, comes from " The Preacher and

2349-487: Is truly known. Apici excerpta a Vinidario survives in a single 8th-century uncial manuscript. Despite the title, this booklet is not an excerpt purely from the Apicius text we have today, as it contains material not included in the longer Apicius manuscripts. Either some text was lost between the time the excerpt was made and the time the manuscripts were written, or there never was a "standard Apicius " text because

2430-414: Is used to prepare cakes , pastries , pies , tarts , quiches , cookies , scones , crackers , pretzels , and more. These popular items are known collectively as "baked goods," and are often sold at a bakery , which is a store that carries only baked goods, or at markets, grocery stores, farmers markets or through other venues. Meat, including cured meats, such as ham can also be baked, but baking

2511-425: Is usually reserved for meatloaf , smaller cuts of whole meats, or whole meats that contain stuffing or coating such as bread crumbs or buttermilk batter . Some foods are surrounded with moisture during baking by placing a small amount of liquid (such as water or broth ) in the bottom of a closed pan, and letting it steam up around the food. Roasting is a term synonymous with baking, but traditionally denotes

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2592-602: Is we who leave them behind, not they who leave us; for our children and grandchildren will be as fond of pies as we have been; therefore it is needful that we should learn how to make them, and make them well! Believe me, I am not jesting, but if all the spoilt pies made in London on one single Sunday were to be exhibited in a row beside a railway line, it would take above an hour by special train to pass in review these culinary victims". The Pilgrim fathers and early settlers brought their pie recipes with them to America , adapting to

2673-522: The Boston cream pie , which is a cake . Many fruit and berry pies are very similar, varying only the fruit used in filling. Fillings for sweet or fruity are often mixed, such as strawberry rhubarb pie . Baking Baking has traditionally been performed at home for day-to-day meals and in bakeries and restaurants for local consumption. When production was industrialized, baking was automated by machines in large factories. The art of baking remains

2754-641: The Shakespearean era, fruit pies were served hot, but others were served at room temperature, as they would be brought to the "...table more than once". Apple pies were popular in Tudor and Stuart times. Pippins were baked with cloves , cinnamon , dates and candied orange peels . Rosewater was often added to apple pies. The Elizabethan food author Gervase Markham called for baking “Red Deer Venison, Wild-Boar, Gammons of Bacon, Swans, Elkes, Porpus and such like standing dishes, which must be kept long" in

2835-490: The food preservation aspect of crusty-topped pies, which were often seasoned with "dried fruit, cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg". Their first pies included pies that were based on berries and fruits pointed out to them by the Native North Americans . Pies allowed colonial cooks to use round shallow pans to literally "cut corners" and to create a regional variation of shallow pie. By the late 1700s, cookbooks show

2916-422: The 15th century, custard and fruit pie recipes began appearing, often with apples and figs and dried fruit like dates and raisins. Fresh fruit did not become widely used until sugar dropped in price during the 16th century. The first cherry pie is recorded in the late 16th century, when Queen Elizabeth I was served cherry pie. Queen Elizabeth I was often given gifts of quince or pear pies for New Years. During

2997-451: The 18th century. The character Mrs Elton, from the 1815 novel Emma , believes herself to be modern, but nevertheless plans to take 'pigeon-pies and cold lamb' to a country outing to Box Hill and consults George Turberville 's 1575 work The Noble Art of Venerie (1575) for advice. In the 1817 novel Persuasion , Jane Austen includes pies in her description of an old-fashioned Christmas spread, mentioning 'tressels and trays, bending under

3078-475: The 19th century, alternative leavening agents became more common, such as baking soda . Bakers often baked goods at home and then sold them in the streets. This scene was so common that Rembrandt , among others, painted a pastry chef selling pancakes in the streets of Germany, with children clamoring for a sample. In London, pastry chefs sold their goods from handcarts. This developed into a delivery system of baked goods to households and greatly increased demand as

3159-669: The Church of the Holy Cross, from which these sweet pastries take the name. For Jews, matzo is a baked product of considerable religious and ritual significance. Baked matzah bread can be ground up and used in other dishes, such as gefilte fish , and baked again. For Christians, bread has to be baked to be used as an essential component of the sacrament of the Eucharist . In the Eastern Christian tradition, baked bread in

3240-486: The English cookbook A Forme of Cury had a recipe for “tartes of flesh”, which included a ground-up mixture of "pork, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese" blended with "spices, saffron, and sugar". It also included an apple pie recipes which called for various spices to be used along with figs and raisins The 14th century French chef Taillevent instructed bakers to "crenelate" pie shells and "reinforce them so that they can support

3321-597: The Middle Ages". The Latin text is organized in ten books with Greek titles, in an arrangement similar to that of a modern cookbook: The foods described in the book are useful for reconstructing the dietary habits of the ancient world around the Mediterranean Basin . But the recipes are geared for the wealthiest classes, and a few contain what were exotic ingredients at that time (e.g., flamingo ). A sample recipe from Apicius (8.6.2–3) follows: In

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3402-534: The Slave ", a 1911 Joe Hill song. Cream filled or topped pies are favorite props for slapstick humor. Throwing a pie in a person's face has been a staple of film comedy since Ben Turpin received one in Mr. Flip in 1909. More recently, pieing has also become a political act; some activists throw cream pies at politicians and other public figures as a form of protest. Some of these pies are pies in name only, such as

3483-518: The United States, the baking industry "was built on marketing methods used during feudal times and production techniques developed by the Romans." Some makers of snacks such as potato chips or crisps have produced baked versions of their snack products as an alternative to the usual cooking method of deep frying in an attempt to reduce their calorie or fat content. Baking has opened up doors to businesses such as cake shops and factories where

3564-594: The Vinidarius manuscript. Between 1498 (the date of the first printed edition) and 1936 (the date of Joseph Dommers Vehling 's translation into English and bibliography of Apicius), there were 14 editions of the Latin text (plus one possibly apocryphal edition). The work was not widely translated, however; the first translation was into Italian , in 1852, followed in the 20th century by two translations into German and French . The French translation by Bertrand Guégan

3645-441: The amount of fat that is contained in the food item. Higher levels of fat such as margarine , butter , lard, or vegetable shortening will cause an item to spread out during the baking process. With the passage of time, breads harden and become stale . This is not primarily due to moisture being lost from the baked products, but more a reorganization of the way in which the water and starch are associated over time. This process

3726-485: The baking process is done with larger amounts in large, open furnaces. The aroma and texture of baked goods as they come out of the oven are strongly appealing but is a quality that is quickly lost. Since the flavour and appeal largely depend on freshness, commercial producers have to compensate by using food additives as well as imaginative labeling. As more and more baked goods are purchased from commercial suppliers, producers try to capture that original appeal by adding

3807-456: The contents changed over time as it was adapted by readers. Once manuscripts surfaced, there were two early printed editions of Apicius , in Milan (1498, under the title In re quoquinaria ) and Venice (1500). Four more editions in the next four decades reflect the appeal of Apicius . In the long-standard edition of C. T. Schuch (Heidelberg, 1867), the editor added some recipes from

3888-432: The contents for themselves which adds an element of surprise. Eggs can also be used in baking to produce savory or sweet dishes. In combination with dairy products especially cheese , they are often prepared as a dessert . For example, although a baked custard can be made using starch (in the form of flour , cornflour , arrowroot , or potato flour ), the flavor of the dish is much more delicate if eggs are used as

3969-447: The cooking of whole animals or major cuts through exposure to dry heat ; for instance, one bakes chicken parts but roasts the whole bird. One can bake pork or lamb chops but roasts the whole loin or leg. There are many exceptions to this rule of the two terms. Baking and roasting otherwise involve the same range of cooking times and temperatures. Another form of baking is the method known as en croûte (French for "in crust", referring to

4050-535: The day they are to be served, to make sure they are as fresh as possible." Baking needs an enclosed space for heating – typically in an oven . Formerly, primitive clay ovens were in use. The fuel can be supplied by wood, coal, gas, or electricity. Adding and removing items from an oven may be done by hand with an oven mitt or by a peel , a long handled tool specifically used for that purpose. Many commercial ovens are equipped with two heating elements: one for baking, using convection and thermal conduction to heat

4131-405: The effect of baking while reducing the amount of fat needed. Other equipment/tools needed for baking precision include a method for measuring ingredients. Ideally, a scale accurate to the gram is used, as exact measurements provide the best results, but some bakers rely on measuring cups and measuring spoons . Digital kitchen scales are also popular in baking where precise measurements are

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4212-453: The embers of a fire—a favorite method of cooking venison . Salt can also be used to make a protective crust that is not eaten. Another method of protecting food from the heat while it is baking is to cook it en papillote (French for "in parchment"). In this method, the food is covered by baking paper (or aluminum foil ) to protect it while it is being baked. The cooked parcel of food is sometimes served unopened, allowing diners to discover

4293-798: The fact that Jesus was born (before moving to Nazareth ) in a city of that name, the significance of his sacrifice via the Eucharist. Apicius Apicius , also known as De re culinaria or De re coquinaria ( On the Subject of Cooking ), is a collection of Roman cookery recipes, which may have been compiled in the fifth century CE, or earlier. Its language is in many ways closer to Vulgar than to Classical Latin , with later recipes using Vulgar Latin (such as ficatum , bullire ) added to earlier recipes using Classical Latin (such as iecur , fervere ). The book has been attributed to an otherwise unknown Caelius Apicius, an invention based on

4374-400: The fact that one of the two manuscripts is headed with the words "API CAE" or rather because a few recipes are attributed to Apicius in the text: Patinam Apicianam sic facies (IV, 14) Ofellas Apicianas (VII, 2). It has also been attributed to Marcus Gavius Apicius , a Roman gourmet who lived sometime in the 1st century CE during the reign of Tiberius . The book also may have been authored by

4455-407: The filling is impossible to prove. The thick crust was so sturdy it had to be cracked open to get to the filling. This may also be the reason why early recipes focus on the filling over the surrounding case, with this development leading to the use of reusable earthenware pie cases which reduced the use of expensive flour. Medieval pie crusts were often baked first, to create a "pot" of baked dough with

4536-584: The food, and one for broiling or grilling, heating mainly by radiation. Another piece of equipment still used for baking is the Dutch oven . "Also called a bake kettle, bastable, bread oven, fire pan, bake oven kail pot, tin kitchen, roasting kitchen, doufeu (French: "gentle fire") or feu de compagne (French: "country oven") [it] originally replaced the cooking jack as the latest fireside cooking technology," combining "the convenience of pot-oven and hangover oven." Asian cultures have adopted steam baskets to produce

4617-537: The form of birds is given to children to carry to the fields in a spring ceremony that celebrates the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste . Jesus defines himself as the “bread of life” (John 6:35). Divine “Grace” is called “bread of the strong” and preaching, religious teaching, the “bread of the word of God”. In Roman Catholicism , the piece of blessed wax encased in a reliquary is the “sacred bread”. In Hebrew, Bethlehem means "the house of bread", and Christians see in

4698-587: The form of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes called galettes consisting of a crust of ground oats , wheat , rye , or barley containing honey inside. These galettes developed into a form of early sweet pastry or desserts , evidence of which can be found on the tomb walls of the Pharaoh Ramesses II , who ruled from 1304 to 1237 BC, located in the Valley of the Kings . Sometime before 2000 BC,

4779-537: The habit she found she could not break it, so spread it among her friends instead. As the century progressed, afternoon tea became increasingly elaborate." The Benedictine Sisters of the Benedictine Monastery of Caltanissetta baked a pastry called Crocetta of Caltanissetta (Cross of Caltanissetta). They used to be prepared for the Holy Crucifix festivity . The monastery was situated next to

4860-482: The ingredients and techniques available to them in the New World. Settlers' recipes were for English-style meat pies. The newcomers used the fruits and berries that they were familiar with from Europe, but also began incorporating North American vegetables and game that they were not familiar with, with guidance from Indigenous people. Settlers favoured pies over bread because pies required less flour and did not require

4941-519: The invention of enclosed ovens. The book Bread for the Wilderness states that "Ovens and worktables have been discovered in archaeological digs from Turkey ( Hacilar ) to Palestine ( Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) ) and date back to 5600 BC." Baking flourished during the Roman Empire . Beginning around 300 BC, the pastry cook became an occupation for Romans (known as the pastillarium) and became

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5022-455: The label "home-baked." Such attempts seek to make an emotional link to the remembered freshness of baked goods as well as to attach positive associations the purchaser has with the idea of "home" to the bought product. Freshness is such an important quality that restaurants, although they are commercial (and not domestic) preparers of food, bake their own products. For example, scones at The Ritz London Hotel "are not baked until early afternoon on

5103-488: The labour market, which changed pie making from a weekly ritual to an "occasional undertaking" on special occasions. In the 1950s, after WWII, the popularity of pies rebounded in the US, especially with commercial food inventions such as instant pudding mixes, Cool Whip topping, and Jello gelatin (which could be used as fillings) ready-made crusts, which were sold frozen, and alternative crusts made with crushed potato chips. There

5184-471: The meat"; one of his pies was high enough that it resembled a model of a castle, an illusion enhanced by miniature banners for the nobles at the event. Pies in the 1400s included birds, as song birds at the time were a delicacy and protected by Royal Law. At the coronation of eight-year-old English King Henry VI (1422–1461) in 1429, "Partrich" and "Pecok enhakill" were served, alleged by some modern writers to consist of cooked peacock mounted in its skin on

5265-718: The mixture into a kind of broth-like paste. The paste was cooked by pouring it onto a flat, hot rock, resulting in a bread-like substance. Later, as humans mastered fire, they roasted the paste on hot embers, making bread-making more convenient as it could be done whenever fire was created. According to Britannica , the Ancient Egyptians invented the first ovens. They also baked bread using yeast, which they had previously been using to brew beer. By 2600 BCE, they were making bread in ways similar in principle to those of today. The book Culinary Creation states that bread baking began in Ancient Greece around 600 BC, leading to

5346-716: The northern states, pumpkin pie was popular, as pumpkins were plentiful. Once the British had established Caribbean colonies, sugar became less expensive and more widely available, which meant that sweet pies could be readily made. Molasses was popular in American pies due to the rum and slave trade with the Caribbean Islands, although maple syrup was an important sweetener in Northern states, after Indigenous people taught settlers how to tap maple trees and boil down

5427-670: The oven space must not be shared with another dish. These factors, along with the theatrical effect of an air-filled dessert, have given this baked food a reputation for being a culinary achievement. Similarly, a good baking technique (and a good oven) are also needed to create a baked Alaska because of the difficulty of baking hot meringue and cold ice cream at the same time. Baking can also be used to prepare other foods such as pizzas , baked potatoes , baked apples, baked beans , some casseroles and pasta dishes such as lasagne . The earliest known form of baking occurred when humans took wild grass grains, soaked them in water, and mashed

5508-702: The pie to a working man's daily food needs. The first reference to "pyes" as food items appeared in England , in a Latin context, as early as the 12th century, but it is not clear that this referred to baked pies. In the Medieval era, pies were usually savory meat pies made with "...beef, lamb, wild duck, magpie pigeon -- spiced with pepper, currants or dates". Medieval cooks had restricted access to ovens due to their costs of construction and need for abundant supplies of fuel. Since pies could be easily cooked over an open fire, this made pies easier for most cooks to make. At

5589-432: The poet R. Green wrote "Thy breath is like the seeme of apple pies". Medieval England had an early form of sweet pies called tarts and fruit pies were unsweetened, because sugar was a rare and costly status symbol . In the Middle Ages, a pie could have a number of items as its filling, but a pastry would have only a single filling. Until the start of the 15th century, most pies were expected to contain meat or fish. In

5670-574: The presence of proteins. Because foods contain many different types of sugars and proteins, Maillard browning contributes to the flavour of a wide range of foods, including nuts, roast beef, and baked bread." The moisture is never entirely "sealed in"; over time, an item being baked will become dry. This is often an advantage, especially in situations where drying is the desired outcome, like drying herbs or roasting certain types of vegetables. The baking process does not require any fat to be used to cook in an oven. When baking, consideration must be given to

5751-414: The role of what was later called puff paste. A richer pastry, intended to be eaten, was used to make small pasties containing eggs or little birds which were among the minor items served at banquets. The first written reference to a Roman pie is for a rye dough that was filled with a mixture of goat's cheese and honey. The 1st-century Roman cookbook Apicius makes various mentions of recipes which involve

5832-461: The same time, by partnering with a baker, a cook could focus on preparing the filling. The earliest pie-like recipes refer to coffyns (the word actually used for a basket or box ), with straight sealed sides and a top; open-top pies were called traps . The resulting hardened pastry was not necessarily eaten, its function being to contain the filling for cooking, and to store it, though whether servants may have eaten it once their masters had eaten

5913-639: The sap. In the Midwest, cheese and cream pies were popular, due to the availability of big dairy farms. In the US south, African-Americans enjoyed sweet potato pies, due to the widespread availability of this type of potato. By the 1870s, the new science of nutrition led to criticism of pies, notably by Sarah Tyson Rorer , a cooking teacher and food editor who warned the public about how much energy pies take to digest. Rorer stated that all pie crusts "...are to be condemned" and her cookbook only included an apple tart, jelly and meringue-covered crackers, pâté, and

5994-470: The thickening agent. Baked custards, such as crème caramel , are among the items that need protection from an oven's direct heat, and the bain-marie method serves this purpose. The cooking container is half-submerged in water in another, larger one so that the heat in the oven is more gently applied during the baking process. Baking a successful soufflé requires that the baking process be carefully controlled. The oven temperature must be absolutely even and

6075-409: The weight of brawn and cold pies'. In the whole of Persuasion , brawn and cold pies are the only specific mention of food; they are also the only Christmas foods to be mentioned in any of Jane Austen's novels. In the United States of America, a popular idiom is "American as apple pie". There pie, especially apple pie, became intertwined to the point that in 1902, The New York Times asserted that "pie

6156-582: The word "pie" may be the magpie , a "bird known for collecting odds and ends in its nest"; the connection could be that Medieval pies also contained many different animal meats, including chickens, crows, pigeons and rabbits. One 1450 recipe for “grete pyes” that might support the "magpie" etymology contained what Charles Perry called "odds and ends", including: "...beef, beef suet, capons, hens, both mallard and teal ducks, rabbits, woodcocks and large birds such as herons and storks, plus beef marrow, hard-cooked egg yolks, dates, raisins and prunes." Early pies were in

6237-623: The word 'pie' appears in 1303 in the expense accounts of the Bolton Priory in Yorkshire . However, the Oxford English Dictionary is uncertain to its origin and says 'no further related word is known outside English'. A possible origin is that the word 'pie' is connected with a word used in farming to indicate 'a collection of things made into a heap', for example a heap of potatoes covered with earth. One source of

6318-563: Was a pie renaissance in the 1980s, when old-fashioned pie recipes were rediscovered and a wide range of cross-cultural pies were explored. Meat pies with fillings such as steak, cheese, steak and kidney , beef and ale, lamb and mint, minced beef , or chicken and mushroom are popular in the United Kingdom , Australia , South Africa and New Zealand as take-away snacks. They are also served with chips as an alternative to fish and chips at British chip shops. Pot pies with

6399-552: Was banned as a frivolous activity for 16 years, so mince pie making and eating became an underground activity; the ban was lifted in 1660, with the Restoration of the monarchy. Food historian Annie Gray suggests that the myth of the Puritans "actively" banning mince pies came about "due to the defenders of Christmas" who reported Puritan vitriol "with a certain amount of exaggeration". In the 17th century, Ben Jonson described

6480-675: Was established in 168 BC in Rome . Eventually, the Roman art of baking became known throughout Europe and eventually spread to eastern parts of Asia. By the 13th century in London, commercial trading, including baking, had many regulations attached. In the case of food, they were designed to create a system "so there was little possibility of false measures, adulterated food or shoddy manufactures." There were by that time twenty regulations applying to bakers alone, including that every baker had to have "the impression of his seal" upon bread. Beginning in

6561-443: Was fashionable in England from the 1650s onward, then fell out of favour during the 18th century. Pumpkin was sliced, fried with sweet herbs sweetened with sugar and eggs were added. This was put into a pastry case with currants and apples. Pumpkin pie was introduced to America by early colonists where it became a national dish. During the 19th century, pies became, according to food historian Janet Clarkson, "universally esteemed" in

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