Ragan Wallake had been a model for most of her life, but when she hit 35 it was time for retirement. She decided to listen to her heart and follow her passions. Now she spends her time cooking and working in photography. On her blog Beautyinthebite.com, she has a whole category devoted on pie. Who doesn’t love pie?
Here are some pie fun facts, to get your mind on track. 90% of Americans agree that a slice of pie represents one of the simple pleasures in life, cheers to that. Apparently Oliver Cromwell agreed that pie brought people pleasure and decided to ban the eating of pie in 1644. This ban lasted 16 years, can you imagine going without pie for 16 long years? Americans love pies so much that even certain states have adopted specific pie flavors as their own official state pie; like key lime pie is the official pie of Florida, why would have guessed?
Pie is thought to have originated from the Greeks, who were the first to create a layer of dough over the stuffing. It then carried over to the Germans who added seafood and meat into their pies. Eventually the pie made its way over to medieval England, where they were called “pyes” and were mostly savory concoctions. The pyes would be stuffed with lamb, beef, wild duck, and even pigeon.
The English brought the concept of pie over with them to the new world in the 1600s, but at that point were still stuffed with savory flavors. At that time, pies served as a kind of stew, like the stew you make after a big holiday meal, with all of your leftovers. It wasn’t until the 1800s that pies were made to be sweet and even then the options were limited. Give it another hundred years and sweet pies would be dominating the market.
Now back to today, every month on Ragan Wallake’s blog she has a guest post, and this month is the pie lady, Beth Navarro. She has shared several different kinds of pies. She has pie recipes such as, more brownie pie, a summer tomato pie, and black bottom banana cream pie. It just goes to show that pies don’t always have to be sweet they can be savory too.