Apple pie is known as an extremely American dessert, and we get several phrases from it. One such phrase being “As American as apple pie” or the Chevrolet commercial “Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet”. It also featured heavily as a patriotic symbol during World War II, with newspapers saying “no pie-eating people can be permanently vanquished” and when asked why they went to war, a stock answer from soldiers was “for mom and apple pie.” However, there doesn’t seem to me to be a real reason for all this.
Apple pie wasn’t even made in America, and apples aren’t even native to the American continent, and are believed to be from Kazakhstan originally. It was then cultivated heavily by central and northern Europeans. It’s believed that apple pie as a dessert was made by Germans. We know from a Dutch cookbook the Netherlands had it by at least 1514, and it’s highly probable that the English and Swedish also had it for a long time, probably, along with the Dutch, a good deal longer than only 500 years ago.
Due to their lack of native apples, other than the crab apple, Americans didn’t have good access to apples, as crab apples were only good for cider. Even for a while after getting good apples imported to and growing in America, they often went into making even better cider, as that all they really wanted. In the later part of the 18th century however, it became common in Delaware to have an apple pie as a common dessert, mostly once a week to sweeten their standard meals. They could even make them the year round, by using dried apples instead of fresh ones. This was probably the start of the pie’s climb in popularity, eventually becoming iconic for the country as a whole.
Of course, apple pie is well loved nowadays, and as a 2008 survey by Crisco (a vegetable oil company, whose product is often used when making pies, to the point that they have pie recipes on their containers) found, about 19% of Americans prefer apple pie to any other pie. It is good, and I’m not trying to say I don’t like apple pie, I just think it’s odd that it managed to become as iconic as it has.
As a better iconic dessert, I offer pumpkin pie, as pumpkins are native to America. Unfortunately, pumpkin pie itself was made in France, using imported pumpkins. I was unable to find any dessert, much less a well known one, that was entirely native to the Americas, as I was discounting cornbread as a dessert. Pumpkin pie is already the second most popular pie according to that same survey by Crisco, with 13% of America loving it best. I think the reason it hasn’t become popular like apple pie is because it’s already a symbol for Thanksgiving (an American holiday) and because pumpkins can’t be preserved like apples, so apple pie could be made in the winter with dried apples while pumpkins necessitate them being a fall-time only dessert.
So I think that apple pie became popular in America due to its abundance throughout the year, and then the news and media began promoting the pie to give the American people a sense of comradery with each other and their soldiers during World War II. As most people can probably tell, apple pie has rather fallen off in its prominence, so much so I didn’t know there was a saying “As American as apple pie” until I began researching this essay topic. I think this helps prove my point that it was a symbol during World War II. Still great pie though!
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