United States of Pie: Regional Favorites from East to West and North to South

A “colorful, varied collection” of regional heirloom recipes that “may well be the definitive resource on the all-American pie” (Publishers Weekly).

Before cooking shows and celebrity chefs there were church dinners, community bake sales, and county fairs—events for which regular women made their prized family recipes, especially for that homiest and most American of desserts, pie. In United States of Pie, Adrienne Kane invites you on a journey back in time as she scours the country for—and shares—those recipes: the pies that have come to define culinary traditions from the West Coast to the East Coast, from the Midwest to the South. They showcase the innovative spirit of American home cooks in the era before processed foods and flavorless, imported produce took over grocery shelves, and are tested and updated for contemporary palates with an emphasis on local, seasonal fruit and dairy products. With sweet illustrations, tips ranging from the best thickeners for fruit pies to why home bakers should embrace corn syrup, and insightful essays on pie-making traditions around the country, it’s more than a cookbook—it’s a must-have baking resource.

“Culled from farmwife cookbooks, bakeshops, church booklets, and newspapers, the recipes are categorized by region, with chapters for the Northeast, South, Midwest, and West and all of their classics: shoefly, Maine blueberry, Key lime, and strawberry-rhubarb, to name a few. These are interspersed with Kane’s updated versions of unusual, exotic concoctions such as Chipmunk Pie (stuffed with an apple and nut filling), green tomato pie, and burnt sugar meringue pie.” —Publishers Weekly

“A charming recipe collection [that] includes the most thorough instructions we’ve seen yet on mastering pie dough.” —Matt Lee and Ted Lee, authors of the James Beard Foundation Cookbook of the Year The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook