EVERY DAY is a great day for pie at Woody’s Bar-B-Q! But since February is “Great American Pie Month,” we thought we’d take a look back at the pie’s storied history and the many ways Woody’s interprets it today…
Pies of the Past
From the traditional apple pie at Fourth of July picnics to the familiar sight of pumpkin pie on the Thanksgiving table, this delectable dessert pastry is a popular part of American culture. But it didn’t get its start here. According to the American Pie Council, the earliest iterations of pie were likely found in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Italy. The first published pie recipe – for a “rye-crusted goat cheese and honey pie” – is credited to the Romans. By the time they’d made their way to England in the twelfth century, they were primarily savory meat “pyes.” Fruit pies didn’t become the fashion until the 1500s, with Queen Elizabeth I acknowledged as the inspiration for the world’s first cherry pie.
Pies purportedly hopped the pond along with the earliest English settlers. They were not baked in round tins as they are today but in long, narrow pans called coffins. By the time the American Revolution rolled around, pie crust had become the more popular term – with everything from chicken and vegetables to mincemeat to apples being baked within those flaky layers.
The origin of the CREAM pie is attributed to Mossburg Sanzian, a chef at the Parker House Hotel in Boston, who created it in 1856. He invented the Boston Cream Pie – which is more of a fusion of cake and cream pie, with pastry cream spread between a somewhat traditional layer cake that is topped with chocolate. Another interpretation was conceived four years later with the introduction of the lemon meringue pie by Elizabeth Goodfellow, who ran a pastry shop in Philadelphia – mere steps from Independence Hall.
For the classic cream pie we know and love today, the former Borden® Company – now known as Eagle Brand®, well known for its sweetened condensed milk – offered a recipe with a slightly different interpretation of the meringue pie by adding its condensed milk to the mix for a creamier rendition. From there, pastry chefs everywhere experimented with different ingredients for their own interpretation of the cream pie – adding things like key lime, coconut, chocolate, and more to make a popular dessert all the rage.
Woody’s Bar-B-Q Introduces the Sky High Pie to the World
When Woody’s Bar-B-Q first opened our doors in Jacksonville, FL, in 1980, we offered a slightly more limited menu than you might find at our locations today. We presented a choice of two BBQ sandwiches, five BBQ dinners, one combination dinner, one salad, one burger, and eight sides. We also featured two desserts – our original recipe Banana Pudding, and something that has satisfied the sweet tooth of countless patrons in the more than 40 years since… the Sky High Pie. For our twist on the traditional cream pie, we whip the creamy contents until they are fluffy as a cloud, then top them with a generous amount of whipped cream.
Over the years, we, too, have experimented with an assortment of flavors. While not all are available daily in all our locations, our franchisees tend to offer two to three different varieties of Sky High Pie per day. They are available by the slice or as a whole pie, making a great addition to a picnic, party, or holiday gathering. Some of the flavors you are likely to find at your local Woody’s Bar-B-Q are:
- Coconut Cream Pie
- Banana Cream Pie
- Peanut Butter Cream Pie
- Chocolate Cream Pie
- Cookies -n- Cream Pie
- Pumpkin Cream Pie (seasonally)
Take a peek in the pie case when you arrive, or ask your server which flavors are available when you visit your favorite Woody’s Bar-B-Q location, and don’t forget to save room for dessert! To find the Woody’s Bar-B-Q near you and view the rest of our menu, visit us at www.Woodys.com.
KB 1/22/24
