The Evolution of the American Pie

No one, least of all the early settlers, would probably proclaim their early pies as masterpieces of culinary delight. The crusts were often heavy, composed of some form of rough flour mixed with suet that resulted in what one visitor to the colonies reported was a crust that “is not broken if a wagon wheel goes over it.” Pie refinement had to wait until the arrival of new immigrants—most notably religious sects from Germany, who came in search of William Penn’s tolerance, and aristocratic Frenchmen and their followers fleeing the French Revolution.