Apple Pie

Apple pie. The American comfort food. The Thanksgiving holiday staple. Why did I choose this epitome of traditional desserts? For me, apple pie is not just another holiday treat…it is my favorite holiday treat. Why is it my favorite? Besides the delicious aroma that wafts through the kitchen while the pie is baking and the delectable taste of that first bite, apple pie is a dish that I associate with my family. Whenever we, or rather I, bake the dessert, my whole family is usually together for the holidays. Every Thanksgiving, I bake an apple pie while my mother prepares the turkey after we all watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Sometimes my affectionate brothers and sister help me peel the apples with our old fashioned apple peeler, but for the most part I take on this endeavor on my own while everyone else bustles about completing their own jobs before the big Thanksgiving dinner. Baking the family apple pie on Thanksgiving is a task that I thoroughly enjoy doing, and the reward of getting to eat the pie later is more than enough payment.

I have always used the same apple pie recipe. It is the recipe my mother always used and her mother before her. Of course, I cannot say it is an original recipe (we use the homely Betty Crocker’s cookbook), but every time I follow the recipe I can remember watching/helping my mother with the exact same process as a child, and I can only envision my mother doing the same with her mother. The recipe we use is a fairly simple one that has a quick preparation time, something that comes in handy on a busy Thanksgiving afternoon. You start by peeling your Granny Smith apples and then cutting the apples into slices. You then mix the apples with flour, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and then you place the mixture into a piecrust and cover it with another crust. One of the key ingredients that you cannot forget is to place a few slices of butter underneath the top crust in order to create the thick consistency of the sauce in the pie (when it combines with the flour). Then you can express your creativity by designing your own unique air holes in the top piecrust. I’ve done designs such as a leaf, crow’s feet, and even the University of Tennessee’s T logo. After that, you place the pie in the oven, and forty minutes later you have a steaming, fresh apple pie for your table.

While contemporary apple pies consist mostly of sugars, carbs, and fats (being a dessert), and provide little nutritional value (Fatsecret), apple pies in colonial times were designed to act as a sustainable food source (Avey). The American apple pie originated from America’s colonial master England, where meat pies were a common dish, with fruit substituted in for a dessert (Recipe Hut). For colonial settlers, apple pies became an easy meal with the abundance of apple trees, and pies also used less flour than bread, making the pie a cheaper option (Avey). Despite the apple pie’s popularity in colonial America, the craze died down until the pie experienced a comeback after World War II as the creation of the pie became industrialized with items such as ready made piecrusts (Avey). Today the commodification of the apple pie has caused the dessert to appear in bulk on grocery store shelves and even in fast food restaurants.

Despite its reduction to a commodity, the apple pie still acts as a symbol for family and togetherness, and even American prosperity and abundance (Avey). A pie on the table gives the image of prosperity with plenty of food to go around. The apple pie is an American tradition that is favored during big holidays such as Independence Day and Thanksgiving. But for me, the apple pie will always be a memory near and dear to my heart of baking with my mother and being with my family.

Resources:

Avey, Tori. “The History of Pie in America.” - http://toriavey.com/history-kitchen/2011/07/the-history-of-pie-in-america-2/  

Fatsecret - http://www.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/pie-apple-two-crust

Recipe Hut. “The History of Apple Pie.” - http://recipehut.homestead.com/Dessert.html