Editing Pie (section)

===United States (17th century-1980s)===
{{main|Pie in American cuisine}}

The Pilgrims brought the pie recipes they knew from their home countries with them when they arrived to the colonies. Colonists appreciated the [[food preservation]] aspect of crusty-topped pies from Britain, which were often seasoned with "dried fruit, cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg".<ref name="Mayer" /> The first pies they created in the United states were adapted pies that were based on berries and fruits pointed out to them by the [[Native Americans in the United States|Native North American]]s.<ref name="WCA" /> 

According to [[James E. McWilliams]], American cooks "embraced the rough edges of American foodways to foster a pastoral ideal that promoted the frontier values that the colonists had once downplayed".<ref name=cox>{{cite book |last=Cox |first=Robert S. |title=New England Pie: History Under a Crust |date=2015 |publisher=Arcadia |isbn=9781625852922 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9g3hCgAAQBAJ}}</ref> [[Apple pie]]  became popular, because apples were easy to dry and store in barrels over the winter.<ref>"Pie". ''The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink''.Andrew F. Smith, Oxford University Press, USA, 2007.</ref>

Pie fillings could be made with very few ingredients to "stretch" their "meager provisions".<ref name="Drink. Andrew F 2007" /> These pies later came to be known as [[desperation pies]]. First originating in the 18th century they included pies like [[sugar cream pie]] and [[Kentucky transparent pie]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Jean |date=2012-03-14 |title=The South's Storied Chess Pie: Food + Cooking |url=http://www.gourmet.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/food/gourmetlive/2012/031412/the-souths-storied-chess-pie.html |access-date=2024-09-11 |website=gourmet.com |archive-date=September 14, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240914155524/http://www.gourmet.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/food/gourmetlive/2012/031412/the-souths-storied-chess-pie.html |url-status=live }}</ref> By the 19th century pies were a staple of the American family meal and women were responsible for figuring out how to make tasty pies that fit within the family budget.<ref>{{cite book |last=Williams |first=Jacqueline |title=The Way We Ate: Pacific Northwest Cooking 1843-1900 |publisher=Washington State University Press |page=83-4}}</ref>

Once the British had established Caribbean colonies, sugar became less expensive and more widely available, which meant that sweet pies could be readily made.<ref name="Gross" /> Molasses was popular in American pies due to the rum and slave trade with the Caribbean Islands, and [[maple syrup]] was an important sweetener in Northern states, after Indigenous people taught settlers how to tap maple trees and boil down the sap.<ref name="Drink. Andrew F 2007" /> In the Midwest, cheese and cream pies were popular, due to the availability of big dairy farms.<ref name="Drink. Andrew F 2007" /> In the US south, [[African-American]]s enjoyed [[sweet potato]] pies, due to the widespread availability of this type of potato.<ref name="Drink. Andrew F 2007" />

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.<ref name="Drink. Andrew F 2007" /> 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 a "hygienic pie" which had "apple slices or a pumpkin custard baked in biscuit dough".<ref name="Perry" /> 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.<ref name="Perry" />

Another factor that decreased the popularity of pies was [[industrialization]] and increasing movement of women into the labour market, which changed pie making from a weekly ritual to an "occasional undertaking" on special occasions.<ref name="Drink. Andrew F 2007" /> 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.<ref name="Drink. Andrew F 2007" /> There was a pie renaissance in the 1980s, when old-fashioned pie recipes were rediscovered and a wide range of cross-cultural pies were explored.<ref name="Drink. Andrew F 2007" />