As American as Apple Pie
In this photo, two women cut a giant apple pie at the Wisconsin State Fair in 1983. Hungry onlookers eagerly wait their taste of this American classic. But how American is the apple pie?

We all know the expression. But it turns out that recipes for apple pie - or at least something we would recognize as apple pie with a crust and sweet filling - have been around for centuries. Recipes for apple pie come from medieval France, Germany, Italy, and England.

Colonists brought their love of pie to North America where it quickly took root. The first American cookbook, American Cookery by Amelia Simmons (1796), had two recipes for apple pie and one for Marlborough pudding, a pie calling for stewed apples rather than fresh apple slices.

via: Historic Photo Collection, Milwaukee Public Library

To find out more about the history of apples, check out guest blogger Erika Janik’s book Apple: A Global History (University of Chicago, 2011). And a big round of applause (applesauce?) goes out to Erika for taking over the Wisco Histo blog for the entire month of May! If you missed any of Erika’s earlier posts, follow these links to take a look at Wisconsin’s dairy culture, Victory Gardens and other wartime food concerns, beer and brewing, and the history of home economics.