Jump to navigation Jump to search This article is about the pink pie good. For the mathematical constant, see Pi. A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients.
Pies are defined by their crusts. A top-crust pie has the filling in the bottom of the dish and is covered with a pastry or other covering before baking. A two-crust pie has the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Pies can be a variety of sizes, ranging from bite-size to ones designed for multiple servings.
Cooked birds were frequently placed by European royal cooks on top of a large pie to identify its contents. Medieval pies also contained many different animal meats, including chickens, crows, pigeons and rabbits. Early pies were in the form of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes called galettes consisting of a crust of ground oats, wheat, rye, or barley containing honey inside. Ancient Greeks are believed to have originated pie pastry. Nothing is known of the actual pastry used, but the Greeks certainly recognized the trade of pastry-cook as distinct from that of baker. At Roman feasts, pastry-covered meat dishes were served.
