The True Origin of Water Pie - A Hard Times Recipe

As often comes up in culinary history, food preservation may have been a factor in how pie was viewed as an essential household dish. From The Dollop's episode about mince pie I gathered that pies were a form of proto-canning, the crusts hermetically sealed with molten butter and the filling loaded with cinnamon and nutmeg which are natural preservatives. Prior to refrigeration and mass-produced canned goods it would make a ton of sense that pies were an important factor in keeping households fed.

I love the history of this pie. We are generational pie eaters. My brother and I always asked our mother for birthday pie because we hated frosting. Being the daughter of a baker, she would create beautiful lattices and the crust was delectable. I have to make this pie. The music was perfect for this episode.

I come from a Pennsylvania Dutch family in Lebanon County (pronounced Lebanin or ‘Lepnin’ lol). We have so many region-specific recipes, but in light of the water pie, I would LOVE to see a history of Shoofly Pie!!

Max, the Patreon video player is just hopeless. It either won't start at all, or start off in something like 480p, and I can't find a control to dial up the quality. It was much nicer when you published the sponsor-free versions as unlisted videos on YouTube.

I just keep thinking of all of the directions you could take this in...the flavor options are nearly endless. Thanks Max!

Excellent history research once again. Thank you Max! Making do is a survival skill, and in this case, surprisingly tasty.

A lot of times you make stuff that you find really good, but my favorite are the ones where you can see in your face that you're *surprised* that it's really good. (And i'm thinking i may try this with lime zest and black pepper.)

It makes me think if things like sugar pie or vinegar pie. Making do with what was cheap and available. I wonder if the animosity towards the American dessert has anything to do with the popularity of savoury pies. I recall reading part of a letter written by someone from France, while visiting England, horrified by how so many people were eating their meat pies while walking on the sidewalks, rather than stopping to eat their meals at a table, like civilized people.

I wonder if it is also related to the original Shoo-Fly pie, which is a molasses pie.

My father’s people are from Appalachia. Pie need not be sweet. I remember a sausage, onion, apple and cheese pie, double crust pie. Also a shredded chicken, mushroom, onion,mushroom, thyme and I think cream, double crust pie. Having sweet potato pie, huckleberry, dewberry, rhubarb, tomato or strawberry pie as a veggie or breakfast was common

I guess it really should be sugar pie! It does sound a lot like the pecan pie filling, and even more like what is called "butter tart" in Canada (which is extremely yummy). I believe both have eggs in them, as some water pie recipes do.

Oh, Max, this was terrific, and I'm wondering if there may not be a lot more people making water pies soon . Your crust looked sublime, and the half-and-half mix of butter and lard made a lot of sense, both in taste and context. I'm wondering if letting the filling cool somewhat and giving it a good stir before pouring it into the pastry crust might mitigate the layer of hardened butter on top. And, one more thing occurs to me ... 2 tablespoons of sugar is not a lot for an entire pie, is it? Pies were, and are, a bit more calorie-rich than many other foods ... a quality that it actually important when people are hard put to get enough otherwise. Thanks for your impeccable detective work, and no less for your voice skills ... it's such fun when you imitate pompous editors or prissy social arbiters! Onward and upward ... I'm off to eat some pie! ;)

I am interested in the junction of water pie, chess pie and pecan pie. It seems to me as if the are all very much alike.

That pie in the oven is a lethal weapon! Like the cauldron of an active volcano.

There were also downturns caused by famine and other natural causes. I just listened to a podcast about The Year Without a Summer in 1816 that followed the massive eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia. It released so much ash & debris into the atmosphere that it compromised growing seasons around the world, and as far away as the Vermont some people were reduced to surviving on "groundhogs and boiled nettles". I'd like to see more episodes about hard time foods from eras like that and other Depressions.

I love this pie! Thank you for the extra history on the water pie. I love Kate Masterson’s pie quote about “pie as a diet instead of a dessert.”

Fie on all the pie snobs!