Pioneer Pies—Why Were They Round?

The history of pies fascinates most women. So find an easy chair or prop yourself up in bed—you’ll enjoy the next few pages particularly. The creativity of pioneer homemakers, who were as eager as you are to prepare food to please family and friends, will inspire you.

Why were the first pies round instead of square or oblong, for instance? What happened in the New World that shaped pies for centuries to come? Sparse food supplies had much to do with it. Colonial women used round pans literally to cut comers and stretch the ingredients. For the same reason they baked shallow pies. When the orchards and berry patches they planted on cleared, fertile land started to supplement the fruits of the wilderness and “garden sass” became plentiful, truly American pies, plump and juicy, carne from ovens. Rhubarb, a New World garden plant, was called pieplant to designate its major use. Increasingly generous amounts of filling were held or wrapped in crisp, golden pastry made with three available Staples: flour, lard and water.