The Pie's the Limit Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mincemeat

Other additions to mincemeat include candied citron or lemon peel, brandy, and nuts. Many home cooks use pre-prepared mincemeat from a jar; adding some fresh items to the mix makes it seem more "home-made". Although beef is most commonly used today, the recipes originated in the Middle Ages and might have included mutton, rabbit, pork or game. Per Walker's, a Scottish purveyor of shortbread and mince pies and tarts, King Henry V served mincemeat pie at his coronation. Mixing the meat with brandy or wine and fruit helped preserve it. Most commonly served in winter, mincemeat pie has become a Thanksgiving tradition in the US and is a Christmas treat in the UK, where children leave mince pies for Father Christmas.

Answer: Lemon meringue

The lemon was probably a good hint. The filling is a lemon curd that includes the egg yolks, whereas the topping is a meringue made with whipped egg whites. It is served chilled, and should be kept refrigerated. The earliest recipes date to the 1760s, but it became most popular in the Victorian era. Several authors credit Elizabeth Goodfellow as the originator of lemon meringue pie in its current form - she ran a cookery school in Philadelphia in the first half of the 19th century, and her students popularized her recipes. Topping the pie with meringue makes economic sense - the yolks are required for the filling, so rather than throwing the whites away they could be baked on top.

Answer: Boston cream

Not a pie! Even though it is called Boston cream pie, it is really a cake and the baking powder should be a clue to its true nature. It is a vanilla sponge cake with a layer of pastry cream, topped with chocolate ganache. Apparently cakes were often baked in pie tins, which may explain the name.

Boston cream pie is thought to hail from Boston - it is attributed to Mossburg Sanzian, an Armenian-French chef at the Parker House hotel (aka Omni) in Boston, who purportedly unveiled the cake in 1856. (An interesting side note is that Ho Chi Minh worked in that same hotel as a baker in 1912, and Malcolm X later served as a busboy there.) Some writers believe that Boston cream pie was a derivative of the older Washington pie, which was a sponge cake with a jelly layer. Boston cream pie is the official dessert of the state of Massachusetts.

Answer: Chess pie

Chess pie is most often associated with Southern US cuisine. It has been described as tasting like pecan pie without the pecans. Buttermilk pie is also a Southern staple that is somewhat similar, but it uses buttermilk instead of regular milk, and is thickened only with flour and not cornmeal as is seen in chess pie. Vinegar pie has more vinegar and also does not contain cornmeal.

The origin of the name of chess pie is lost to history, but most explanations rely on mis-hearing of a thick southern accent, e.g. "just pie" or "chest pie".

The "chest pie" theory relates to the ability to make the pie with ingredients you might likely have in your kitchen chest.

Answer: Shoofly pie

Shoofly or shoo-fly pie is associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch - people from Germany who were generally Amish or Mennonite. It has also been called molasses crumb cake, and generally resembles a treacle tart and has been described as crumb cake baked in a pie crust.

Ask most folks why it is called shoofly and they will answer that the name relates to the sweetness of the pie and the need to shoo flies away as it cooled on the windowsill. However, Wikipedia says there was a brand of molasses sold in the US called shoofly, and others relate the name to a popular circus act called Shoofly the Boxing Mule. The popular song "Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me" may have inspired both the molasses and mule's moniker. The pie was initially known as centennial cake, sold to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It was traditionally served with strong, black coffee.

Answer: Mock apple pie

This recipe has been labeled as one of the "desperation pies", created in times of financial hardship as a way to provide a sweet treat without using expensive ingredients such as eggs or fruit. It is more likely that it was created to satisfy a hankering for apple pie during the season when stored apples had been used up.

The spices plus lemon added to the layers of crackers resemble the texture and flavor of thinly sliced apples baked in a pie. (Some recipes crumble the crackers - then it has more of an applesauce texture to the filling.) Ritz crackers came into favor in the 1930s for the pie, aided by printing the recipe on the cracker box. Possibly mock apple pie grew in popularity because of the scarcities experienced in the Depression, but the pie dates back much further into the 1800s. Before Ritz brand, soda crackers were used.

Answer: French silk

This pie is traditionally made with a chocolate cookie crust. Despite the "French" name, it is a wholly American invention. A woman named Betty Cooper submitted the recipe for the third annual Pillsbury baking challenge in 1951. It is essentially chocolate mousse in a pastry shell, topped with whipped cream and chocolate curls.

The mousse may be the inspiration for calling it French, and the smooth texture explains the "silk". Generally the eggs are not cooked, but recipes do exist that call for cooking it more like a custard first; the original recipe called for pasteurized eggs.

Answer: Grasshopper

Which came first, the cocktail or the pie? Probably the grasshopper cocktail, a green concoction invented around 1918 at the New Orleans establishment Tujague's. The green crème de menthe lends a light green color to the pie, so it is often served in springtime, especially near St. Patrick's Day and Easter.

Some cooks add green food coloring for a more vibrant color. The filling can be made with peppermint extract to make a non-alcoholic version. The marshmallows help the pie to set - it is a vegetarian alternative to gelatin, and thus also permissible during the season of Lent.

A popular brand of unflavored gelatin printed a recipe on their box, which may have enhanced its spread among American households. The pie is served chilled and can be prepared ahead.

Its heyday was the 1960s.

Answer: Sawdust

The pie is named for the consistency of the filling as it is prepared, not for its flavor! This pie has been attributed to the Amish, just like shoofly pie. Served at a Kentucky establishment named Patti's 1880s Settlement starting in the 1970s, the restaurant's recipe was printed in "Bon Appetit" magazine in 1983 so the pie expanded in popularity.

It is served with toppings such as bananas and caramel sauce, but also pairs well with ice cream or whipped cream. Apparently in the 1800s, the term "sawdust pie" referred to a practical joke where an inedible "pie" was presented as a prank.

Answer: Vinegar pie

The tang of the vinegar in this pie is reminiscent of lemon. This pie likely originated from home cooks who wanted to serve something sweet when other fresh ingredients were lacking. It is referred to as a "desperation pie", for when you're desperate for pie but don't have fancy supplies. Like other such ingenuous pies, this arose in the 1800s. Most recipes call for brown sugar, but some do cling to white sugar for the pie.

Some recipes call for blind baking the pie crust first, others bake the custard and pastry together.

The finished pie is often served with a dusting of powdered sugar, or nutmeg, or whipped cream. Alternatively, a few recipes top the pie with meringue.