Thanksgiving in America is all about the food, I mean the grateful hearts of family and friends piling the food on our plates, lots and lots of food. Let’s take a moment and reflect upon one of the quintessential desserts of Thanksgiving: apple pie. And now, as the history nerd I am, let me dissect it for you as the most non-native grown combination of ingredients.
All good pie starts with a crust: flour, shortening, sugar, and salt.
- Flour: Although I’m gluten-free, most people have a wheat-based crust. Wheat originated near what is now Iraq. It was first planted in the United States during colonial times. So not only is it a transplant, but it wasn’t even around for the first Thanksgiving.
- Shortening: Butter comes from dairy cows, which were brought over by the first European settlers in the 1600s. But lard is the traditional ingredient and I’ve heard makes the flakiest crust. Christopher Columbus brought Spanish pigs to the Americas, so although not native, that’s quite early in our history.
- Sugar: Sugar cane plants developed in SouthEast Asia. This was the engine of the slave trade starting in the 16th century for the Americas. Columbus brought this over first too.
- Salt: Why, yes, salt is found in America with both mines and the ocean. I found it amusing to find out that although the native people had no problem harvesting local salt, colonists imported theirs from England.
And now the filling: apples, sugar, lemon juice, shortening, flour, salt, and cinnamon.
- Apples: Originally found in Kazakhstan, traveled through the Silk Road to Europe and eventually made it to America with the early European settlers. There really was a Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) who planted lots of apple nurseries.
- Sugar, Shortening, Salt, and Flour: see about the crust…
- Lemon Juice: Citrus trees came from India into the Middle East via Alexander the Great. And, once again, it was Christopher Columbus who first introduced citrus to the Americas. That guy!
- Cinnamon: This classic spice does not grow ’round here, and it was one of the main “ingredients” of the spice trade that influenced Europe’s (and the rest of the world’s) economics for centuries. It is still imported from Indonesia.
To sum up, salt. That’s the only native ingredient in apple pie; the rest are all transplants and imports. Come to think of it, perhaps that makes apple pie a truly American dish. Happy Thanksgiving!