ISSUE 35, PIES, Part 2: Pecan Pies
Pecan Pies
Southern Culinary history has to contend with more than the usual load of bs, as local boosters like to claim origins of dishes that go on the become icons of regional foodways. Pecan pies, Pecan pies, you sit upon a throne of lies!. Now some lies, provided they are lurid enough, ingenious enough, and peopled with enough striking characters to merit attention as examples of the art of story telling. Unfortunately no such artistry adorns the lies told about the origins of pecan pie. The fictions are simply bald prevarication. No evidence. No paper trail. Just groundless assertion, or surmise, often in the face of counter indications. So let us ponder some of the origin of pecan pie stories. #1. The Louisiana Lie. [Tori Avey, et al.] Shortly after the French settled La Louisiane they encountered the Choctaw pecans, loved them, and with them concocted pecan pie. Problems with this story--tarte aux noix de pecan appears nowhere in the 19th century records of Louisiana—records that are very rich in recording pralines and pecan cake. Given the frequent revulsion expressed by French-trained chefs of the era at American pies, and custard pies particularly, it is unlikely that this was what a pastry cook or baker would have produced in New Orleans. #2 The Alabama Pie made from boiled pecans. #3 The Karo Syrup discovery of Pecan Pie. So what is the truth? Not trusting the received history on the matter I did research into the matter from primary sources and in the end confirm the conclusion that Andrew F. Smith came to in his talk “The Pecan: A Culinary History” (Charleston, February 21, 2012).
Pecan pie began in Texas, invented in the 1880s. It was first mentioned in print on February 6, 1886 in the Austin paper, Texas Siftings. And from the first is was framed as “a real state pie,” that is, a dish intended to be a signature of a place’s ingredients and skills. [“Pecan Pie,” Texas Siftings, p3. ] The pecans were boiled in milk and added to a custard pie. This add nuts to standard custard pie recipe approach found in the earliest Kentucky Hickory Nut Pie recipes as well: “To your favorite custard pie recipe add one half cup ground hickory nut meats. Bake as ordinary custard pie. The nuts stay on top, forming a nice brown topping.” Fortunately there are enough 19th-century custard pie recipes from the South to determine the make up of the earliest Texas pecan pies. These were eggier, and creamier than later pie fillings, with half as much sugar. [See Old Fashioned Custard Pie recipe below.]
What happened was that the filling of the pie became more sugary—or more accurately—more syrupy shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. Here is a 1908 recipe by Mrs. H. E. Knight of Fort Worth:
Pecan Pies “Take 2 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water, boil until thick with a lump of butter the size of an egg; then take 4 eggs separate; take the yolks with 2 tablespoons of corn starch (or flour) and 1 cup of sweet cream (or milk), stir this into syrup; when thick remove from the stove and add 1 ½ pounds of pecans chopped fine and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. Beat white and put on to bake, with a rich crust. Fort Worth Star-Telegram, July 2, 1908, p. 7.
This syrupy filling more resembles Mississippi cane sugar pie w/ nuts added than old southern Chess pie with nuts added. Seeing this style of pie emerge in the early decades of the century makes one realize why Karo syrup seized upon the pie as the vehicle for getting placed in the southern housewife’s pantry in the 1930s.
See: http://andrewfsmith.com/wp-content/themes/wooden-mannequin/pdf/PecanHistory.pdf