Apple pie is not quite the iconic dish that Americans think it is. Test your Pie IQ

Who hasn’t heard the phrase “As American as baseball and apple pie”? No matter how romantic the idiom may be, Americans cannot claim credit for inventing pie.

According to the American Pie Council, credit goes to the early Romans, whose first documented attempt at making a pie turned out to be a goat cheese and honey pie topped with a rye crust.

The crusts were commonly used as a filling, which in the twelfth century consisted primarily of meat. Many of these pies contained poultry. The creatures’ legs were left intact and hung over the edge of the dish to be used as handles.

Fruit pie fillings first appeared in the 1500s. The first documented cherry pie was a treat for members of the royal family and was served to Queen Elizabeth I.

The pie tradition crossed the Atlantic Ocean when the Pilgrims served pumpkin pie during the second Thanksgiving in 1623. Again, early American pie crusts were often used as a serving vessel and then tossed. Today, the crust is just as important as the filling.

Over the years, pie has evolved into a favorite dessert in American culture. Here are some fun facts shared by the American Pie Council to test your pie IQ.

Boost Your IQ With These Fun Facts

• People are passionate about pies. In 2022, Datassential’s food and beverage analysis found that 78% of consumers said they liked or liked pie.

• Consumed out of home, pie is the third most common dessert offered on restaurant menus, according to Datassential.

• About $2 billion worth of pies are sold in grocery stores each year. This does not include restaurants, catering establishments or price clubs, only grocery stores. If you count the number of pies sold in U.S. grocery stores in one year, they will circle the globe and then some.

• According to a survey by the American Pie Council: Almost one in five (19%) Americans prefer apple pie, followed by pumpkin (13%), pecan (12%), banana cream (10%) and cherry (9%).

• Pie wasn’t always America’s favorite. dessert – In the 19th century, fruit pies were a common breakfast, eaten before starting a long day.

• Apple pies accounted for 27% of all pie sales in 2023.

• Every November, 50 million pumpkin pies are eaten.

• 6 million American men aged 35 to 54 have eaten their last piece of pie and abandoned it.

• One in five Americans ate an entire pie alone.

• First President George Washington is famous for his association with cherries. His wife Martha used them to make George’s favorite cherry pie.

• Former President James K. Polk favored a vinegar pie made with homemade apple cider vinegar made from apple peels and cores, fresh rainwater and a little honey.

• Probably no other American has written as many words about pie as Mark Twain. Twain loved pie so much that he often ate half a pie for lunch and finished it off with dinner.

• More than a third of Americans have eaten pie in bed.

• A wet bottom pie with molasses, Shu-fly pie, was used to attract flies from the kitchen.

• Oliver Cromwell banned the eating of pie in 1644, declaring it a pagan form of pleasure.

• In the 16th century, the English upper classes were known for their “surprise pies” from which living creatures would pop out when the pie was cut. Foxes, squirrels, frogs, horses and even “twenty-four blackbirds” were hidden in the incredible pie under a removable pie crust lid designed to impress guests at aristocratic banquets.

• It was once illegal in Kansas to serve ice cream on cherry pie.

• “Easy as pie” is an American expression. In the 1890s, the word “pie” was a common slang expression for something simple.

This article originally appeared in the Wisconsin Farmer: Americans can’t claim credit for inventing apple pie. Here’s why.