National Pie Day is celebrated annually on January 23rd.
National Pie Day was created simply to celebrate the pie. It is a day for all to bake or cook their favorite pies. Even more importantly, it is a day set aside for all to enjoy eating pies!
- The first pies appeared around 9500 BC in the Egyptian Neolithic period or New Stone Age.
- Fun Tidbit – Pie throwing: Cream filled or topped pies are favorite props for 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.
- In 1986 National Pie Day was first celebrated by the American Pie Council to commemorate Crisco’s 75th anniversary of “serving foods to families everywhere.”
- Meat pies with fillings such as steak, cheese, steak and kidney, minced beef, or chicken and mushroom are popular in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand as take-away snacks
- 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).
- Fruit pies may be served with a scoop of ice cream, a style known in North America as pie à la mode.
- Pumpkin pie was first introduced to the holiday table at the pilgrim’s second Thanksgiving in 1623.
- Pie is so special it has two days: December 1st and January 23rd are National Pie Day.
- Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of pie in 1644, declaring it a pagan form of pleasure. For 16 years, pie eating and making went underground until the Restoration leaders lifted the ban on pie in 1660.
- Pie was not always America’s favorite dessert – in the 19th Century, fruit pies were a common breakfast food eaten before the start of a long day.
- The Ancient Egyptians around 2,500BC are known to have eaten pies made with ground oats or wheat wrapped around a filling of honey or figs.
- 47% of Americans for whom the word “comforting” comes to mind when they think of pie.
- 1 in 5 Americans have claimed to have eaten an entire pie by themselves.
- 9% Americans who prefer to eat their pie crust-first.
- 18% of men who say their wife makes the best homemade pie while 2% of women who say their husband makes the best homemade pie.
- “As easy as pie” is an American expression. In the 1890’s, “pie” was a common slang expression meaning anything easy, a cinch; the expression “easy as pie” stemmed quite readily from that.
- Boston Cream Pie is a cake, not a pie.
- Americans recently voted online, apple as their favorite type of pie when choosing among cherry, chocolate cream, and pumpkin!
- A Shoofly Pie is a Traditional Dutch Molasses Pie: Shoofly pie was originally created in order to celebrate the 100th year following the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.
- There is a Town in New Mexico Named “Pie Town”
- The first reference to “pyes” as food items appeared in England (in a Latin context) as early as the 12th century, but no unequivocal reference to the item with which the article is concerned is attested until the 14th century (Oxford English Dictionary sb pie).
- Over the years, pie has evolved to become what it is today “the most traditional American dessert”. Pie has become so much a part of American culture throughout the years, that a saying “as American as apple pie” is now commonly use.
- Apple pie is the most popular flavor in America, followed by pumpkin, chocolate, lemon meringue and cherry – according to the American Pie Council.
- The world’s most expensive pie was designed at the Lord Dudley Hotel in Sydney and is worth AU $12,000– about USD $9,500. Ingredients include two cuts of premium beef, two whole rock lobsters, rare winter black truffles, two bottles of Penfolds Grange Reserve and pastry with 24k German gold leaf.
- According to the American Pie Council, Americans buy more than 186 million pies at the grocery store each year. That is enough to stretch around the globe and beyond. 7% of American have also tried to pass off store bought pie as homemade.
- One third of American have eaten a slice of pie in bed.
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