Glossary
The vocabulary.
63 terms used by bakers, fair judges, cookbook writers and historians, defined from the record.
À
- À la modeHistory
Served with ice cream. Merriam-Webster’s second sense of the phrase is topped with ice cream, beside its older sense of fashionable, which it dates to 1642.
Three people have been credited with the dessert sense: John Gieriet of the Hotel La Perl in Duluth, and Charles Watson Townsend and Mrs. Berry Hall, diners at the Cambridge Hotel in Cambridge, New York. Grammarphobia finds no nineteenth-century evidence for any of them. The earliest dessert use it found is an April 26, 1893, St. Paul Daily News report on pie prices at the Chicago World’s Fair, and the earliest clearly meaning ice cream is the Chicago Daily Tribune of August 4, 1895. Barry Popik records that the American Dairy Association declared August 1959 a Remember the A La Mode month.
A
- Amateur divisionCompetition
The American Pie Council division that its 2026 guidelines describe as “open to individuals who make less than $500 annually related to pie sales.”
Entrants must be 18 or older and may enter as many original pies as they like in four flavors for 2026: Open Cream, Open Fruit or Berry, Open Savory, and a sponsored Karo Corn Syrup category. Each pie must have a bottom crust. Prizes are the same as in the professional division.
B
- Baked dairyCompetition
An American Pie Council flavor grouping for baked pies with dairy fillings, which the rules list as including custard, chess and sugar cream.
- Baking stoneKitchen
A slab of stone or steel preheated in the oven to deliver concentrated heat to the bottom of a pan.
King Arthur recommends baking pies on a preheated stone or steel so the bottom crust sets before liquid from the filling soaks in. It warns that a glass or ceramic plate set cold on a hot stone can shatter from thermal shock and that a metal pan is needed for the method. Where no stone is available, Dorie Greenspan sets the pie on a baking sheet, which she says concentrates heat on the base.
See Soggy bottomSee Pie plateSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4
- BeadingFilling
Small amber droplets of syrup that form on the surface of a baked meringue.
Sources disagree on the cause. Ricardo blames excessive baking, in which surface proteins coagulate too far and expel water. Iowa State’s manual lists overcoagulation from baking on a hot filling, which it still recommends for food safety, along with undissolved sugar and overbeating. Sunset attributes beads to steam from a hot filling that collects near the surface and is squeezed out as the meringue cools, faster in humid weather or in the refrigerator, and adds a little cornstarch to the meringue to hold it.
- Best New ProductCompetition
An American Pie Council category for commercial and independent pies with new flavors, ingredients or techniques that are ready for sale or newly introduced.
For 2026, eligible pies had to be introduced after April 15, 2025, and only this category is scored for creativity. A separate R&D category gives scorecards and comments on pies not yet in production but awards no ribbons.
- Best of ShowCompetition
The top award across a department or division of a fair, chosen from the first-place winners of its classes.
The Nebraska State Fair’s foods department scores Best of Show at 15 points and Reserve Best of Show at 12 toward its sweepstakes award, and gives $20 and a rosette for the best entry among its pie classes, a pie carrier to the overall pie winner and pie beads to the best cream pie. The North Carolina State Fair’s 2026 baking book pays $25 for Best of Show in its decorated pie crust division. County fairs use other titles, such as the grand champion of the Richland County Fair pie auction in Ohio.
See Blue ribbonSee Decorated pie crustSee Pie auctionSource 1Source 2Source 3
- Blind bakeCrust
To bake an empty pie shell before it is filled, either partway or all the way through. Gisslen calls the practice baking blind; King Arthur calls it prebaking.
King Arthur’s method chills the shell for 30 minutes, lines it with foil, parchment or a coffee filter, fills it about two-thirds full with beans, rice, pie weights or sugar, and bakes it at 375°F for 20 minutes. That leaves a partially baked crust. To finish it, the liner comes out, the bottom is pricked with a fork, and the shell bakes 20 to 25 minutes more until golden. Gisslen’s professional method bakes the shell upside down between two pans at 450°F, which keeps the dough from sliding into the pan.
See DockingSee Pie weightsSee ShrinkageSee Soggy bottomSee Cream pieSource 1Source 2Source 3
- Blue ribbonCompetition
The award for first place in an American pie competition.
The American Pie Council awards one blue ribbon per category and flavor in its commercial and independent divisions and may withhold it when only one baker enters a flavor. In its amateur and professional divisions, first place is a blue ribbon and $250, second a red ribbon and $100, and third a yellow ribbon and $50. The Nebraska State Fair’s sweepstakes scoring uses blue for first, red for second and white for third.
See Best of ShowSee Amateur divisionSee Professional divisionSee Commercial divisionSource 1Source 2
- Bottom crustCrust
The pastry that lines the base and sides of the pie pan and holds the filling.
Gisslen recommends mealy dough for bottom crusts because it absorbs less liquid, and about 8 ounces of dough for a 9-inch pan. The American Pie Council requires a bottom and side crust on dessert pies in its commercial and independent divisions and a bottom crust of any kind on amateur and professional entries. The Nebraska State Fair requires pies of at least 8 inches with top and bottom crusts, except cream and custard pies, and homemade crusts only.
See Top crustSee Mealy doughSee Soggy bottomSee EntrySource 1Source 2Source 3
C
- Chess pieFilling
A very sweet, egg-rich pie of sugar, eggs and butter, often with cornmeal and vanilla. Britannica calls it popular in Tennessee and other parts of the southern United States; nineteenth-century Kentucky and Tennessee church cookbooks print it as chess cake.
Britannica records three explanations of the name and endorses none: an Americanized pronunciation of cheese, a pie chest used to store pies, or the phrase just pie spoken as jes pie. Its conclusion is that the origin of the term remains unknown. The food historian Sarah Baird, interviewed by NPR, groups chess pie with Kentucky’s transparent pie, Indiana’s sugar pies and Pennsylvania’s shoofly pie as pies of the same simple sugary filling.
See Transparent pieSee Custard pieSee Baked dairySource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4Source 5
- Chiffon pieFilling
A chilled pie whose filling is lightened with beaten egg whites, whipped cream or both and set with gelatin or starch.
Gisslen describes three kinds of base, thickened with starch, with egg, or with egg and starch, and gives rules for gelatin, including that raw pineapple and papaya contain enzymes that dissolve it. His chiffon formulas specify pasteurized egg whites. The USDA’s 2001 egg-safety guidance states that chiffon pies made with raw beaten egg whites cannot be guaranteed safe and suggests whipped cream or whipped topping instead.
See Cream pieSee MeringueSee Crumb crustSource 1Source 2Source 3
- ClearJelFilling
A trade name for modified corn starch used to thicken pie fillings. Regular ClearJel needs heat; Instant ClearJel thickens on contact with liquid.
Iowa State Extension describes regular ClearJel as a modified waxy maize starch and the thickener recommended for home-canned pie filling, because it stays thin enough during processing for heat to penetrate the jar. The National Center for Home Food Preservation’s canned apple pie filling uses it. King Arthur warns that Instant ClearJel must not be used for canning and found it gave the clearest, least gummy filling in its 2024 trial. Iowa State calls the instant form freeze-thaw stable and says the regular form tends to weep on thawing. Gisslen recommends waxy maize for frozen pies because freezing does not break it down.
See CornstarchSee TapiocaSee Flour (as thickener)See WeepingSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4Source 5
- CoffinHistory
In medieval and early modern English cookery, the pastry case of a pie. The Forme of Cury spells it coffyn.
The Forme of Cury, compiled about 1390, instructs cooks to make a coffin an inch deep, fill it and cover it, and its 1780 editor Samuel Pegge glossed coffyns as pies without lids. King Arthur describes these crusts as thick, sturdy receptacles for the filling more than pastry meant to be eaten. Merriam-Webster traces coffin to a Middle English word for a basket or chest and dates its use for a burial box to 1525.
- Commercial divisionCompetition
The American Pie Council division for companies with pie-specific sales of $1 million or more a year. Companies below that line enter the independent division.
Commercial and independent pies are entered by wholesale-cost tier, Family, Premium, Gourmet and Super Gourmet, plus hand-finished and portion-control categories, each with a no-sugar-added counterpart. Pies must be entered as sold to the consumer and be in production, and company names may not appear in pie names. For 2026 a commercial member paid $175 an entry and an independent member $50.
See NSASee Baked dairySee Best New ProductSee Professional divisionSource
- Cooked juice methodFilling
A professional way of making fruit filling in which the drained juice is thickened with starch on the stove and then folded back into the uncooked fruit.
Gisslen explains that only the juice is cooked, so the fruit keeps its shape and flavor, and uses the method for most canned and frozen fruit and for fresh berries. Fruit that needs cooking is made by his cooked fruit method. He also describes the old-fashioned method common in homemade apple and peach pies, in which raw fruit, sugar and starch go straight into the shell, and lists its drawbacks: thickening is hard to control, the fruit shrinks and leaves an air space under the top crust, and juices boil over more easily.
- CornstarchFilling
A fine starch from corn that thickens liquids when heated, setting into a firm gel.
Gisslen uses cornstarch for cream pies because it sets firm enough to slice, and notes its frequent use in fruit fillings in food service. He warns that sugar and strong acid weaken its thickening power and that in pumpkin pie it can settle before it gelatinizes, leaving a dense layer at the bottom. King Arthur puts the start of cornstarch gelatinization at 203°F. Sunset writes that heat and the acid of lemon juice can destroy its hold in a lemon filling.
See ClearJelSee TapiocaSee Flour (as thickener)See Cream pieSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4
- Cream pieFilling
A pie whose filling is a stovetop pudding or boiled custard poured into a fully baked shell and chilled until it can be sliced.
Gisslen describes cream pie fillings as pastry cream with added flavorings, made with cornstarch so the slices hold their shape. Lemon filling is made the same way with water and lemon juice in place of milk. The crust must be fully prebaked because the filled pie never returns to the oven. The American Pie Council’s Open Cream category requires that at least half the pie be cream-based and puts cream pies into a cooler at check-in. The Nebraska State Fair requires cream fillings to be made fresh on judging day.
See Blind bakeSee CornstarchSee MeringueSee Chiffon pieSee Crumb crustSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4
- CrimpCrust
To press the edge of a pie crust into a sealed, patterned rim, either by pressing it onto the pan’s rim with a fork or by pinching it with the fingers.
King Arthur’s guide brings the top crust over the edge of the bottom crust to form a ridge of dough, then either presses it flat with fork tines or makes a taller finger crimp of even indentations. It recommends chilling the pie for 20 to 30 minutes afterward so the crimp holds its shape. A raised crimp needs weights during prebaking, while a flat fork edge allows the shell to be baked upside down. King Arthur attributes a crimp that melts and puddles in the oven to butter’s low melting point and adds shortening for stability.
See FluteSee Top crustSee Bottom crustSee Crust shieldSee Blind bakeSource 1Source 2Source 3
- Crumb crustCrust
A pie shell of crushed cookies or crackers bound with sugar and melted butter and pressed into the pan instead of rolled pastry.
Gisslen lists graham crackers, vanilla or chocolate wafers, gingersnaps and zwieback as bases, with ground nuts for special desserts. He uses crumb crusts mainly for unbaked pies such as cream and chiffon pies, and for cheesecake, and notes that baking the crust firms it and toasts its flavor. He warns that the crust should suit the filling and gives lime chiffon in a chocolate crumb crust as an unappealing match.
- Crust dustCrust
Equal parts flour and granulated sugar sprinkled into an unbaked bottom crust before a juicy filling goes in, to absorb liquid until the crust sets.
King Arthur uses about 2 teaspoons for a 9-inch pie and cites Paula Haney, who found the mixture in several vintage cookbooks. In its tests, all-purpose flour, bread flour and cornstarch all stopped seepage, but cornstarch left a jelly-like sheen, and a heavier layer made a pasty band between crust and filling. Gisslen gives a comparable professional remedy, a thin layer of cake crumbs under fruit fillings.
- Crust shieldCrust
A ring of metal, silicone or folded foil laid over the rim of a pie to keep the exposed edge from browning too fast. Also called a pie shield.
King Arthur’s guide covers the edge with a shield or foil strips if it browns too quickly near the end of baking. A 2020 King Arthur article favors an adjustable silicone shield that fits pans from 8 to 10 inches, because a rigid shield cannot follow the ridges of a crimped edge. The edge is most at risk when a prebaked shell goes back into the oven with its filling.
- Custard pieFilling
A single-crust pie with a liquid filling of eggs and milk or cream that sets in the oven as the egg proteins coagulate. Gisslen calls these soft pies and includes pumpkin and pecan among them.
Gisslen tests doneness by shaking the pie gently or by inserting a knife an inch from the center, and warns that the center will still be slightly soft and will finish cooking from its own heat. King Arthur’s custard pie is done when set at the edges and still a bit wobbly in the center, at 170°F to 180°F. Extension guidance from LSU AgCenter, citing the 160°F standard for eggs, calls for baked egg-rich desserts to reach 160°F in the center. The American Pie Council groups custard, chess and sugar cream pies as baked dairy.
See Chess pieSee Transparent pieSee Baked dairySee Soggy bottomSee FluteSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4
- Cut inCrust
To work cold, solid fat into flour until it is broken into small pieces coated with flour, by hand, with a pastry blender or knives, or in a mixer or food processor.
Gisslen calls the procedure the rubbed dough method and reduces it to two steps: rub the fat into the dry ingredients, then mix in the liquid. How far the fat is worked decides the dough. King Arthur’s classic recipe asks for an uneven mixture with big chunks of butter among small ones and warns that working the butter in completely makes a mealy crust rather than a flaky one.
See Pastry blenderSee Flaky doughSee Mealy doughSee FraisageSource 1Source 2
D
- Decorated pie crustCompetition
A North Carolina State Fair baking division in which crusts are judged on appearance alone.
The 2026 rules forbid real filling; entries are filled with a dyed puffed-rice and marshmallow mixture, are not tasted and need no recipe. The division has two classes, Lattice Design for any interwoven crust and Wild Card for any other design.
- DockingCrust
Piercing unbaked pastry, usually with a fork, so that steam can escape and the crust does not blister or puff as it bakes.
Gisslen defines to dock as to pierce or perforate the pastry with a fork or other suitable tool, and docks empty shells well before baking them. Recipes differ on timing. King Arthur’s 2015 prebaking method pricks the bottom only for the second stage of a full prebake, after the weights come out; its 2025 trial docked the crusts before they were weighted. The same trial found that a stainless steel pie chain may keep the bottom from puffing but lacks the weight to stop the sides from slumping.
E
- Egg washCrust
Beaten egg brushed onto pastry before baking to give it color and shine, or to glue pieces of dough together.
Gisslen lists milk, cream, egg wash and melted butter as washes for top crusts and notes that egg-washed tops bake shiny while the others give a home-baked look. He also egg-washes lattice strips and the rim of the pie to seal them. The American Pie Council bars hand-decorating or finishing on most commercial-division pies but makes an exception for egg wash.
See Top crustSee LatticeSee Commercial divisionSource 1Source 2Source 3
- EntryCompetition
A single pie submitted for judging in one class, flavor or category of a competition.
The American Pie Council requires every amateur and professional entry to carry an original recipe never entered in any other competition, which the council and its sponsor then own. Commercial and independent bakers bring two of each pie, one for judging and one for display. The Nebraska State Fair requires homemade crusts and a recipe with each pie, and the Vermont State Fair will not judge products made with commercial mixes. The Kentucky State Fair posted a warning against frozen pie shells after a 2014 blue ribbon was withdrawn from a pie made with a store-bought crust.
See Judging criteriaSee Bottom crustSee Amateur divisionSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4
F
- Flaky doughCrust
Pie dough in which the fat is left in distinct pieces that flatten into thin layers when the dough is rolled and separate into flakes in the oven.
Authorities disagree on the size of those pieces. Gisslen and the Kansas State University text call for pieces the size of peas or hazelnuts, with walnut-sized pieces for what some bakers call long-flake dough. King Arthur’s 2017 guidance calls for walnut halves for flaky crust and reserves pea-sized pieces for mealy crust. Gisslen recommends flaky dough for top crusts and for prebaked shells filled with cooled filling shortly before serving.
See Mealy doughSee Cut inSee FraisageSee Top crustSource 1Source 2Source 3
- Flour (as thickener)Filling
All-purpose wheat flour used to thicken fruit pie juices as they bake.
King Arthur calls flour the most common pie thickener because nearly every pantry has it. In its 2024 trial the flour-thickened filling set but was slightly cloudy with a faintly starchy mouthfeel. Gisslen notes that flour has less thickening power than other starches and makes fruit fillings cloudy. Iowa State Extension advises using the same amount of ClearJel as flour, or slightly less.
See CornstarchSee ClearJelSee TapiocaSource 1Source 2Source 3
- FluteCrust
A raised edge pinched into a regular, repeating pattern around the rim of a pie. Gisslen uses the words together in his instruction to flute or crimp the edges.
Gisslen notes a division among professionals: some bakers feel fluted edges improve a pie’s appearance, while others think fluting takes too much time and leaves a rim of heavy dough that customers leave on their plates. Many bakers, he writes, make a raised fluted rim on shells for soft fillings so the shell can be filled quite full with less chance of spillover. King Arthur gives the same reason for an upright edge on its custard pie, which keeps the filling from sloshing out on the way to the oven.
- FraisageCrust
A French pastry technique in which butter and flour are smeared across the work surface with the heel of the hand, flattening the butter into long, thin sheets.
King Arthur traces the method to classic French pastry and to Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In its comparison, crusts made with and without fraisage were both flaky and tender, and the fraisage crust shattered more. Folding is a related route to layers. Amelia Simmons’s puff pastes of 1796 roll butter into the dough six or more times, and Stella Parks’s pie dough uses one round of folding for eight major layers.
G
- Graham cracker crustCrust
The most common crumb crust, made from ground graham crackers, sugar and melted butter.
Gisslen’s formula uses graham cracker crumbs at 100 percent, with sugar and melted butter each at 50 percent by weight. The mixture is pressed into the pan with a second pan, about 8 ounces for a 9-inch pie, baked at 350°F for 10 minutes, and cooled before filling. His key lime pie formula allows either a baked pastry shell or a graham cracker shell.
H
- Hot-water crustCrust
Pastry made by bringing water and fat to a boil and stirring the hot mixture into flour, producing a pliable dough that bakes firm enough to stand on its own.
King Arthur traces it to British pies baked in thick crusts called coffins and cites The English Huswife, published in London in 1615, which called for hot water to make a thick, long-lasting crust. It describes the baked pastry as dense, sturdy and snappy. America’s Test Kitchen, which whisks boiling water into lard to form an emulsion, found the dough easy to work but reported that tasters called the baked crust mealy and advised cooks wanting pastry worth eating to use its standard dough instead.
J
- Judging criteriaCompetition
The published standards on which competition pies are scored.
The American Pie Council scores First Impression, which includes a pre-slice score for the crust or topping and an after-slice score for runniness, juiciness or firmness; Flavor; Mouthfeel, including whether the crust is flaky or mealy; Overall Appeal; and Creativity for its Best New Product category only. The Vermont State Fair lists appearance, size and shape, crust that is flaky and tender, flavor, filling, consistency, and a meringue that is light, tender and slightly sweet. The Middlesex County Fair awards one point each for presentation, outside characteristics, inside characteristics and the absence of spoilage.
See Pre-slice scoreSee Flaky doughSee Mealy doughSee Best New ProductSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4
L
- LatticeCrust
A top crust made of strips of dough laid or woven across the filling with open spaces between them.
Gisslen’s procedure cuts fresh dough, never scraps, 1/8 inch thick into strips about 3/8 inch wide, egg-washes the strips and rim, and lays them about an inch apart. He judges lattice tops best for colorful fruit such as cherry or blueberry. King Arthur cuts strips 1/2 to 1 inch wide and weaves them by folding back every other strip, and finds that an open or lattice-topped pie needs less thickener than a double-crust pie because more steam escapes. The North Carolina State Fair’s decorated pie crust division has a Lattice Design class for any variation of interwoven crust.
See Top crustSee Egg washSee VentSee Decorated pie crustSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4
- Leaf lardCrust
Lard rendered from leaf fat, the fat that lines a hog’s abdominal cavity and encloses the kidneys. Merriam-Webster calls it high-quality lard.
The Columbia Encyclopedia ranks leaf lard as the highest grade, the fat from the back as next best, and fat from the small intestines as poorest. Gisslen calls lard an excellent shortening for pies because it is firm and plastic, properties that produce flakiness, but notes it is not widely used in food service. King Arthur warns that commercial lard varies widely in flavor, moisture and consistency and gives a slightly savory, sandy crust. Merriam-Webster dates leaf fat in English to 1702.
See Flaky doughSee Hot-water crustSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4Source 5
M
- Mealy doughCrust
Pie dough in which the fat is blended into the flour until the mixture looks like coarse cornmeal, giving a short, tender crust that resists soaking.
Gisslen lists three results of the fuller blending: a very short, tender crust because less gluten forms, less water needed, and a baked crust less likely to absorb moisture and turn soggy. He recommends it for bottom crusts, especially under custard, pumpkin and baked fruit fillings. The American Pie Council’s scorecard asks judges to assess the crust as flaky or mealy.
See Flaky doughSee Bottom crustSee Soggy bottomSee Pâte briséeSee Judging criteriaSource 1Source 2Source 3
- MeringueFilling
Egg whites beaten with sugar into a stiff foam. As a pie topping it is spread over the filling, sealed to the crust and browned in the oven.
Gisslen uses common or Swiss meringue at one pound of sugar per pound of whites, spreads it to the crust edge all around so it cannot slide, and bakes at 400°F, warning that higher heat shrinks and toughens the surface. The USDA’s 2001 guidance says meringue-topped pies should be safe if baked at 350°F for about 15 minutes. Ricardo recommends 325°F for 20 to 25 minutes for meringues of four or more whites. Sunset advises adding cream of tartar before the whites reach a coarse foam and beating in the sugar gradually.
See WeepingSee BeadingSee Cream pieSee Chiffon pieSource 1Source 2Source 3Source 4
- Mock apple pieFilling
A pie made to imitate apple pie with crackers, sugar, an acid and spice in place of apples.
West Virginia University’s libraries cite a cracker pie recipe in the Saturday Evening Post of February 14, 1857, written for places where apples were scarce. They credit Nabisco with introducing the Ritz cracker version in the 1930s and quote the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America that it evolved from mid-nineteenth-century imitation pies made with soda crackers. The Christian Science Monitor reported in 1999 that Nabisco had dropped the recipe from the back of the Ritz box several years earlier.
N
- NSACompetition
No sugar added. In American Pie Council rules, an NSA pie may contain no sugar or sugar-containing ingredients but may use sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners.
NSA versions run parallel to each wholesale-cost category in the commercial and independent divisions. The Nebraska State Fair’s pie division offers a separate sugar-free pie class.
P
- PasteHistory
The older English word for pastry dough, used in early American cookbooks for pie crust.
Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, printed in Hartford in 1796, numbers its pastes. They include puff pastes made by rolling butter into the dough repeatedly, a paste of suet and butter for meat pies, and a Royal Paste for tarts. Her apple pie of stewed and strained apples with lemon peel, cinnamon, mace and rose-water is baked in paste No. 3.
- Pastry blenderKitchen
A hand tool of curved wires or blades on a handle, used to cut cold fat into flour. Also called a dough blender or pastry cutter.
U.S. Patent 1,645,062, filed by Clara Birchard Lambert in February 1927 and issued that October, is cited in a later patent as teaching a pastry blender with curved, semicircular cutter wires. The Kentucky Historical Society holds a stainless steel blender of about 1930 with five blunt blades and a latest patent date of 1929.
- Pâte briséeCrust
The French short pastry used for tarts and pies, whose name means broken dough.
The Kansas State University food science text describes pâte brisée as made like a mealy pie dough, with the fat rubbed into the flour until it resembles coarse meal but still shows visible pieces of butter. Coating the flour with fat hampers gluten and gives a tender pastry. The same text contrasts it with pâte sucrée, a sweeter dough that is softer and harder to handle.
- Pi DayHistory
March 14, written 3/14 after the first digits of pi, observed with pie since its founding at the Exploratorium in San Francisco in 1988.
The Exploratorium credits its staff physicist Larry Shaw, who linked the date to pi at a staff retreat; at the first observance he and his wife set up a table of fruit pies at 1:59. On March 12, 2009, the U.S. House voted 391 to 10 for H. Res. 224, introduced by Mr. Gordon of Tennessee, which supports the designation of a Pi Day and encourages schools to teach about pi. The resolution does not mention pie.
- Pie auctionHistory
The sale of pies to the highest bidder, a feature of pie suppers and of many county fairs.
A 1944 Library of Congress photograph caption reproduced by NCpedia describes a pie and box supper at Quicksand school in Breathitt County, Kentucky, held to raise money for repairs and supplies. The Richland County Fair in Ohio judges its pies on appearance, flavor and the texture of crust and filling, names a grand champion, and auctions the entries.
- Pie birdKitchen
A hollow ceramic figure, often a bird with an open beak, set in the middle of a double-crust pie so steam can escape through it. Also called a pie funnel.
Ceramics Monthly, drawing on Linda Fields’s Four & Twenty Blackbirds, traces the device to cylindrical or hourglass-shaped ceramic funnels used in Victorian Britain. It reports that American ceramic companies began shaping them as birds around the 1930s, probably after the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence. Fields attributes their decline by the mid-20th century to less home baking and to frozen pie crusts, patented in the 1950s.
- Pie plateKitchen
The shallow, sloped dish a pie is baked in, made of metal, glass or ceramic. Also called a pie pan or pie tin.
America’s Test Kitchen’s 2025 review prefers thin metal, which browns crusts fastest, and notes that glass browns more slowly but more evenly and lets the baker see the bottom crust. Gisslen warns that pans are often mislabeled, with some marked 9 inches smaller than 8-inch pans, and measures pan size as the inside top diameter. The capacities ATK tested ran from 4.25 cups for the classic Pyrex glass plate to 6 cups for a ceramic model.
See Soggy bottomSee Baking stoneSee Pie serverSource 1Source 2Source 3
- Pie safeKitchen
A ventilated cabinet for the short-term storage of fresh and recently cooked food, made with punched tin, perforated wood or cloth panels to keep out insects and rodents.
A High Museum of Art fellowship paper reports that the earliest known example, in the collection of Colonial Williamsburg, dates to about 1680 to 1720 and uses rough linen. Tin panels became popular in the 1830s, and many Southern safes stood with their feet in containers of oil to stop ants. The High acquired a Greene County, Tennessee, safe of about 1830 to 1860 in 2016. The Henry Ford holds an 1825 tin panel attributed to John Henson of Lexington, Virginia, punched “JOHN Q. ADAMS / MARCH 4TH 1825.”
- Pie serverKitchen
A serving utensil with a flat, wedge- or spade-shaped blade for lifting slices of pie from the plate.
Historic New England holds a silver-plate pie server of 1850 to 1880 by Rogers Bros. of Meriden, Connecticut, with a spade-shaped blade engraved with olive branches, from the Spencer-Peirce-Little Farm in Newbury, Massachusetts. America’s Test Kitchen recommends a plastic-bladed server for nonstick metal pie plates to avoid scratching the coating.
- Pie supperHistory
A rural fundraiser at which pies baked by local women were auctioned, usually at a schoolhouse or church. Related events were called box suppers or pie socials.
The Encyclopedia of North Carolina describes box suppers in which girls decorated and filled boxes that were auctioned to boys, with proceeds for the school or church, and notes that the events also served as courtship. Ozarks Alive quotes the Cassville Republican of November 1897 reporting that a pie supper’s proceeds would buy lights for the schoolhouse.
- Pie TownHistory
A settlement on U.S. 60 west of Socorro, New Mexico, named for pies sold to travelers in the 1920s.
Accounts of the founder differ. The Santa Fe New Mexican, dating the town to 1922, gives the most accepted story as that of Clyde Norman, a World War I veteran with a failed mining claim who opened a gas station and served coffee and pie on the highway. New Mexico’s tourism department credits Norman Smith, a miner and general store owner who baked pies for westbound travelers. Dust Bowl homesteaders settled there in the 1930s, and Russell Lee photographed them in June 1940.
- Pie weightsCrust
Weights set on a liner inside an unbaked crust to hold its bottom and sides in place during blind baking. Ceramic or metal beads are sold for the purpose; dried beans, uncooked rice and granulated sugar are common substitutes.
In King Arthur’s 2025 trial, five crusts were baked 20 minutes at 375°F and then 30 minutes more. The unweighted control shrank markedly and slid partway down the pan; all four weighted crusts held. A perforated silicone pouch of stoneware weights, nearly 4 1/2 pounds in all, was easiest to use, while most boxed ceramic weights come in containers of 2.2 pounds or less. The sugar fused into a solid mass at the bottom, and Milk Street advises against glass weights.
- Pre-slice scoreCompetition
The American Pie Council’s score for a pie’s appearance before it is cut, covering the look and consistency of the crust or topping.
The score forms part of the council’s First Impression criterion, alongside an after-slice score for the filling. The Middlesex County Fair judges the same features as outside characteristics: a crust evenly brown, a pastry edge regular and without bulges, and a crust that fits the pan with filling that fits the crust. The North Carolina State Fair’s decorated pie crust division judges appearance alone and does not taste the entries.
See Judging criteriaSee Decorated pie crustSee CrimpSource 1Source 2Source 3
- Professional divisionCompetition
The American Pie Council division that its 2026 guidelines describe as “for individuals only (not companies),” in which an individual “would be deemed professional if they receive an income of more than $500 annually related to the pie industry.”
A chef working for a bakery entered in the commercial or independent division may also enter pies as a professional. Entrants must be 18 or older, and the flavors and prizes match the amateur division.
S
- ShrinkageCrust
The pulling back or slumping of pastry from the sides and rim of the pan during baking.
Gisslen’s fault chart gives the causes as overworked dough, too little shortening, too strong a flour, too much water, dough stretched when placed in the pan, and dough not rested; he rests made-up pies 20 to 30 minutes, preferably refrigerated. King Arthur attributes slumping mainly to melting fat and notes that shortening, with its higher melting point, slumps less than butter. Both chill the crust before baking to relax the gluten.
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- Soggy bottomCrust
A bottom crust that is underbaked or has soaked up liquid from the filling, leaving it pale, damp or gummy.
Gisslen calls it a common fault and lists remedies: mealy dough, strong bottom heat early in baking, no hot fillings in unbaked crusts, a thin layer of cake crumbs under fruit fillings, and dark metal pans. King Arthur explains that wet filling soaks into raw dough before the dough can set, a particular risk with fruit and custard fillings, and that the cure is a barrier, a crust that sets first, or both.
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- StreuselCrust
A crumbly topping of flour, sugar and butter, often with oats or nuts, used on single-crust pies in place of a top crust. Also called crumb topping.
King Arthur’s streusel whisks flour, sugar, oats and salt and works in butter until coarse crumbs form. Its Dutch apple pie takes the name from the Pennsylvania Dutch practice of topping pies with buttery streusel instead of a second crust. Gisslen writes that streusel is especially good on apple pies. King Arthur suggests prebaking the bottom crust only for single-crust fruit pies with crumb or streusel tops.
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- TapiocaFilling
A starch from cassava, used in its quick-cooking form to thicken fruit pie fillings.
King Arthur notes that quick-cooking tapioca is harder to find and that a tapioca filling must sit at least 15 minutes before baking for the pearls to soften. In its 2024 strawberry-rhubarb trial, the tapioca filling set but was slightly cloudy and more sticky than the others. Gisslen lists tapioca among the starches used less often in professional fillings. Iowa State Extension advises against tapioca in home-canned pie filling.
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- Top crustCrust
The sheet of pastry laid over the filling of a double-crust pie and sealed to the bottom crust at the rim.
Gisslen recommends flaky dough for top crusts, cooled filling beneath them, perforations for steam, and a rim moistened with water or egg wash so the crusts seal. His scaling guide calls for about 6 ounces of dough for a 9-inch top crust against 8 ounces for the bottom. He notes that raw fruit shrinks as it bakes, which can leave an air space and a misshapen top crust. The American Pie Council requires a bottom crust on amateur and professional entries but leaves the top crust optional.
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- Transparent pieFilling
A Kentucky pie of sugar, butter, cream or milk, eggs and a little flour, associated with Maysville. The filling is pale rather than see-through.
Kentucky’s tourism department dates the pie likely to the 1800s in the Northern Kentucky River region and credits Magee’s Bakery in Maysville with popularizing it in the 1930s. NPR reported in 2017 that the name first appeared in Kentucky newspapers in the 1890s and that its origin is still unexplained. Bakers there describe it as the same pie other regions call chess pie.
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- VentCrust
An opening cut into a top crust so that steam can escape as the filling cooks.
King Arthur’s guide vents a double-crust pie with a series of parallel cuts 3 to 4 inches long and judges a fruit pie done when filling bubbles through them. Gisslen’s fault chart lists a top crust without steam vents among the causes of filling boiling out. Ceramics Monthly explains that an unvented crust can rupture or leave an air gap between crust and filling, and that ceramic pie birds once served the same purpose.
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- WeepingFilling
Liquid that collects between a meringue and its filling, or that separates from a baked filling.
The Exploratorium attributes meringue weeping to water leaking from the whites, which are 87 percent water, when the underside of the meringue does not cook; its remedy is a steaming-hot filling. Iowa State’s food preparation manual lists the causes of leakage as underbeating, placing meringue on cold filling, a short bake at high temperature, underbaking and delayed baking. Gisslen notes that a little starch in a custard filling reduces separating, or weeping, in the baked pie.
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