National Apple Pie Day, America’s favorite dessert, is observed annually on May 13th.
- The first apple pie recipe printed was in England in 1381. The list of ingredients included good apples, good spices, figs, raisins, pears, saffron, and coffyn (a type of pastry crust).
- The phrase ‘American as apple pie ‘ is a proverbial expression cited from the American Revolutionary War. When Britain was engaged in war with France, there were fears in the American colonies of a possible invasion.
- Teddy Roosevelt was impressed to have a taste of home when he was served an American apple pie while traveling in Africa.
- Soldiers during World War II were often quoted they were fighting “for Mom and apple pie.” In 1970, advertisers used the patriotic connection with a commercial jingle “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.”
- The saying “as American as apple pie” describes things that represent the best of American culture. People use this expression when talking about things like blue jeans, baseball and rock-n-roll music.
- The phrase ‘as American as apple pie’ was also used by John F Kennedy in 1960 in a presidential debate against Richard Nixon.
- America Voted Apple as its Favorite Pie. Americans recently voted online, apple as their favorite type of pie when choosing amongst cherry, chocolate cream, and pumpkin!
- There is a Town in New Mexico Named “Pie Town”.
- An Apple Pie For Dinner is based on a folk tale from England called “The Apple Dumpling.”
- Early English apple pies had no sugar. Sugar cost too much. Sweet fruits, like figs, were added instead.
- English settlers brought apple pie-making to America.
- Settlers of the American west made mock apple pie. They had no apples. They used crackers and special spices instead. They thought it tasted like real apple pie.
- Here is a sample of a mock apple pie made from Ritz crackers!
- It wasn’t until the 15th century that Dutch bakers transformed the crust-less apple pie into the lattice-style pastry we commonly see today.
- Apple pie is an unofficial symbol of the United States and one of its signature comfort foods.
- The only apple native to North America is the crab apple. Nearly all of the apples that were grown in America were brought by settlers or invented at a later date.
- In olden times, the pie crust was called a “coffyn”,
- One of America’s founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson is the grandfather of the Fuji Apple. While the Fuji apple was first cultivated in the 1930s and later introduced to the states in the 1960s, it is a cross between the Red Delicious apple and the Virginia Ralls Janet. The Janet was first grown at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello orchard.
- Archaeologists have found evidence that people have been eating apples since at least 6500 B.C.
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