Page 10 - Pie It Forward: Pies, Tarts, Tortes, Galettes, and Other Pastries Reinvented

afterbirth potpie, but an ancient variation on our

beloved cheesecake. So remember next time

you’re eating a cheesecake, you’re really eating the

oldest known pie.

READER: How'd you get that catchy name?

PIE: It’s been so many years I don’t quite

remember anymore, but some say I was named

after the magpie, a bird that has an affinity for

collecting bits of disparate pieces of junk, at which

I take umbrage. Sure, early “humble pies” once

consisted of anything remotely edible shoved into

a thick-walled flour crust and baked until any

vestige of taste was eradicated, so I can see how I

could once have been equated with a clinically

insane feathered hoarder, but we’ve come so far

since then.

READER: What’s so easy about “easy as pie”?