Pie gets me out of bed.
Lens

The arguments

The arguments.

Each dispute is laid out with its history, every side's case and every source. The archive gives no verdict.

  1. The Crust Fat

    Lard, butter or shortening in the crust? American pie crust was built on lard and butter for most of its history. A hydrogenated vegetable fat sold from 1911 changed the default in many kitchens, and the published food science still does not crown a single winner. Extension services, test kitchens and the shortening’s own maker each rank the three fats differently.

  2. Boston Cream Pie

    Is Boston cream pie a pie? Boston cream pie is a sponge cake filled with custard and glazed with chocolate, and Massachusetts law names it the official state dessert. The Omni Parker House claims it, though the date and even the chef’s name are disputed. The word pie in its name is usually explained by a time when cakes were baked in pie tins.

  3. Pie or Tart

    What separates a pie from a tart? Most cooks say a tart is open-faced and a pie may be covered, but the dictionaries do not hold the line and the oldest recipes cross it. No American food law defines a pie in general. The one federal standard for a fruit pie was revoked in 2024.

  4. Pumpkin or Sweet Potato

    Pumpkin or sweet potato for the holiday pie? The two pies are close cousins, both spiced custards in a crust, but they arrive at the holiday table by different roads. Pumpkin pie was tied to New England and the Thanksgiving story; sweet potato pie became a pillar of Southern and African American cooking. Historians agree the split is real and that it is less tidy than a line between regions or races.

  5. The Color of Key Lime

    Should key lime pie be green or yellow? Purists in the Florida Keys hold that a key lime pie is pale yellow, the color of its key lime juice, egg yolks and sweetened condensed milk, and that a green one has been dyed. Florida made the pie its state pie in 2006 without defining it, and a proposed fine on counterfeit pies never became law.

  6. Meringue or Whipped Cream

    Meringue or whipped cream on cream and custard pies? A cream pie can be crowned with baked meringue or with whipped cream, and the diner pie case in parts of the South is known for meringue piled several inches high. Meringue is the harder topping to get right. Test kitchens, university food scientists and the egg industry disagree on why it weeps and beads, above all on the temperature of the filling.

  7. How American Is Apple Pie

    How American is apple pie? Apple pie came to America from England and the Low Countries, and the domestic apple came from Central Asia by way of Europe. The pie became an American emblem only in the late 19th and 20th centuries. The phrase “as American as apple pie” has several claimed first appearances, from 1910 to 1924.

  8. Cheddar on Apple Pie

    Cheese on apple pie? In parts of New England and the Midwest, apple pie comes with a slice of cheddar, a pairing usually traced to Yorkshire. Vermont’s 1999 state pie act asked for a good-faith effort to serve apple pie with cheddar, milk or ice cream. The rhyme quoted in its defense is in print by 1882, where it is credited to an American.