It's kismet!

[elfs]

So, Slate magazine allows Nather Heller to complain about pie. Yes, the food substance, pie. He complains that pie is "gloppy, soggy, and un-American."

At a cafe and pie store I visited this afternoon, I found this quote:

It is utterly insufficient (to eat pie only twice a week), as anyone who knows the secret of our strength as a nation and the foundation of our industrial supremacy must admit. Pie is the American synonym of prosperity, and its varying contents the calendar of the changing seasons. Pie is the food of the heroic. No pie-eating people can ever be permanently vanquished.
— New York Times Editorial, 1902

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_candide_/]

Funny thing, that.

Anyone know why apple pie is considered so "American?"

Anyone?

Well, the first part is fairly obvious: We grow apples on this continent fairly readily and fairly well, and have since very early on. But the main reason? During the Colonial Era, the traditional American breakfast was Apple Pie.

Now, my knowledge ends there, with just the factlet. But my guess is that the "Apple Pie" of that era was little more than an apple pastie. (Using fresh apple slices in-season, of course, and preserved the rest of the year.)

What apple pie … and pie in general … has turned into during the last 50 years kinda reminds me of Ben Franklin and the national bird. As many of you know, old Ben wanted the national bird of the US to be the turkey. That made a lot of sense 200+ years ago: the turkey is an indigenous bird, was tough as nails and a good fighter. Wild turkeys still are this way. Over the past 100 years, however, we've bred turkeys into these stupid, disproportionately-sized things. Just like pies have turned into these vaguely-fruit-esque corn-syrup-filled concoctions served in monstrously-oversized portions.

I'll leave the progression of the analogies and drawing-of-conclusions to someone else. ^_^

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

My American food history books say that colonial pies were round like modern pies. And apple pie was frequently eaten with cheese.

They also made fried pies, usually made with some form of stewed fruit. They were essentially fruit pastys but fried instead of baked, disturbingly like the things that McDonald's calls fruit pies. If you make them with stewed peaches they're called Crab Lanterns. No, I don't know why.

I refuse to eat commercial fruit pies, they suck. This is why I have about eight pies worth of apples in the freezer. ;-)

[dossy.livejournal.com]

Elf, I think you've just created an inspiration within me ... to create the ultimate, perfect, bacon pie. I'm dead serious.

I know what I'm going to be doing next weekend ...

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Bacon-apple pie is amazingly delicious.

[dossy.livejournal.com]

Wha-wha-wha-what?!?! Did you make it? Got any tips or pointers?

I was thinking of using phyllo for the pie crust, pan frying some bananas for the pie filling, and layering raw bacon on top for the pie top, then baking. In this household, we enjoy fried bananas with bacon ... so I figured this would be a perfect "bacon pie" to start.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

I have not made it myself, but a friend has. It was really really good.

There are recipes gadding about on teh intarwebz, here's one: http://bacontoday.com/the-bacon-apple-pie/