Type | Pie |
---|---|
Place of origin | England |
Main ingredients | Pie crust, eggs, butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, corn meal |
Variations | Lemon chess pie, vinegar pie |
Chess pie is a dessert with a filling composed mainly of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes milk, characteristic of Southern United States cuisine. [1]
Jefferson Davis pie is similar to chess pie, but Jefferson Davis pie may also contain spices, nuts, or dried fruits and is usually topped with meringue. [2]
Chess pie was brought from England originally and was found in New England as well as Virginia. [2] [3] It has some similarities to English lemon curd pie. [4]
It is likely derived from recipes for cheeseless cheesecake that appeared in cookbooks as early as the 17th century, such as in Martha Washington's Booke of Cookery and the English A True Gentlewoman's Delight (1653). [5] A recipe explicitly called chess pie appeared in the 1877 cookbook by Estelle Woods Wilcox, Buckeye Cookery. [5] [6]
Today chess pie is most commonly associated as a dessert of the American South. [4] Common types of chess pie are buttermilk, chocolate, lemon, and nut.[ citation needed]
Several derivations of the name chess pie have been proposed. The most likely is a derivation of cheese pie, as early cookbooks grouped cheesecakes together with pies made of curd or custard. [7] [8] [9] [6] Other possible derivations include: the town of Chester, England; [5] chest pie, from pie chest, a type of furniture used to store pies prior to home refrigeration; or an eggcorn of "It's just pie" due to a misinterpretation of the pronunciation "It's jes' pie" in Southern American English. [10] [4]
The basic chess pie recipe calls for the preparation of a single crust and a filling composed of flour, butter, sugar, and eggs and milk or condensed milk. Some variations call for the addition of cornmeal as a thickener. Many recipes call for an acid such as vinegar, buttermilk, or lemon juice. [11] [8]
In addition to standard chess pie, other flavor variations include lemon, coconut, and chocolate chess pie. [12] Some nut pies, including some pecan, fall under the category of chess pies. [13] Traditional pecan pie recipes do not include milk or condensed milk in the filling, and are typically regarded as a type of sugar pie similar to British treacle rather than a milk-containing custard (see Pecan pie § Variations).
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Brought from England and prevalent mostly in New England and the Virginias, this was served more as a tea accompaniment than as a dessert pie. Traditionally it is made in patty pans as tarts.