Image credit: A. Laczek – via freeimages.com
Happy Pi Day!
When we heard today was pie day, we naturally assumed that it was to celebrate the delicious, delectable dessert we all know and love. Imagine our dismay when we discovered it is to celebrate a mathematical number. Now, we have a question for you: Would you rather have pie or celebrate a letter in the Greek alphabet?
Yeah. That’s what we thought.
Let’s move on to what really matters: Here are some ways we are celebrating the best dessert known to man.
Fun Facts about Pie:
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Pie used to be common breakfast food – it was eaten in the 19th century before a long day. Now that’s a breakfast anyone can understand!
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It used to be against the law in Kansas to serve a dollop of ice cream on top of cherry pie. We’re not sure why; it seems like a fantastic idea to us.
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“Surprise Pies” used to be popular among wealthy English folks; live creatures would pop out when the pie was cut open. That’s a terrible idea. Talk about food that gives you a heart attack.
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Originally, pies were made of meat and baked in long, slender pans and were called “coffins” which means “basket or box.”
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You know those porcelain birds that are sometimes placed in the middle of pies today? Those came from the tradition instituted by European royalty of placing cooked birds on top of pies to identify the type of filling. We prefer the modern take on the whole bird and pie arrangement.
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Of course you want to know when fruit pies were first mentioned in print (these are important facts to know!). That would be in Robert Green’s “Arcadia,” written in 1590. “Thy breath is like the steame of apple-pyes.” So romantic.
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Mincemeat pie used to be banned. During the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan Council decided that the celebration of Christmas promoted pagan beliefs as well as gluttony, and therefore should be banned. This included the traditional mincemeat pie. You know you’re a little off when you start banning pie…
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We’ve all had to “eat humble pie” at least once in our lives. But, you should be glad it was just eating your words, and not the meal the idiom originally was derived from. “Umble pie” was a pie filled with the chopped or minced innards of an animal. Umble was derived from “humble” (or the French word nomble, which means deer’s innards). Despite the humble filling (which was usually eaten by the poor), there really isn’t a link between “umble” and “humble.” It just sounds the same.
