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What is a pie?

started by slowdog (22-02-2008, 23:13)

slowdog 22-02-2008, 23:13: This is a subject of much debate at my office.

Some say that a pie absolutely has to be savoury; others refer to apple pies and damn good cherry pies as good examples of non-savoury pie-ness.

Does a pie have to be encased in pastry? How does that account for shepherd’s pie or cottage pie?

And finally, does a pie have to possess a lid? Actually, I don’t think you can argue about this one. Surely it’s more of a tart without some cover on it?

Anyway - how do you define a pie?
Phil Chambers 23-02-2008, 12:11: It has to have a lid. It has to be savoury! Cottage pie is not a pie!
MissGood 24-02-2008, 17:06: Well I think that a pie can be sweet or savoury and in the case of the latter it should at least have a lid.But with the former the base can either made the conventional way with flour and butter or the French way with digestive biscuits and a mixture of nuts like almonds,hazlenuts,walnuts etc etc
scottishwolf 24-02-2008, 22:05: The dictionary reckons it can be sweet or savoury…lid not necessary, but some pastry has to be involved…unless its a cake version of a pie…that’s got to be an American thing surely?

1) a baked food having a filling of fruit, meat, pudding, etc., prepared in a pastry-lined pan or dish and often topped with a pastry crust: apple pie; meat pie.
2) a layer cake with a filling of custard, cream jelly, or the like: chocolate cream pie
Rob Hinchcliffe Admin 25-02-2008, 10:20: If we’re not careful we’re going to get on to the whole Jaffa cake/biscuit argument soon.
scottishwolf 26-02-2008, 17:30: Oh dear lets not go down that route…Although American Pie was not about meat based dishes…well maybe…
MissGood 26-02-2008, 18:00: No I think that the British one is the best-surely some-one in the dark ages must have had the ingenuity to invent it.
aLii 26-02-2008, 22:16: along the lines of “does it have to have a lid?”, pies also have to have a pastry base. I always feel completely cheated when some henceforth-to-be-known-as “skanky” pub serves up a steak pie that consists of a ceramic bowl covered with a piece of puff-pastry.
78apples 02-03-2008, 17:34: Jaffa cakes are biscuits.
Netty 02-03-2008, 17:58: Jaffa cakes are biscuits. Mark, my partner likes pork pies!!