Pecan pie is a sweet custard pie made primarily of pecans and corn syrup. It is popularly served at holiday meals and is also considered a specialty of Southern U.S. cuisine. Most pecan pie recipes include salt and vanilla as flavorings. Other ingredients such as chocolate and bourbon are popular additions to the recipe. Pecan pie is often served with whipped cream.

A tradition holds that the French created pecan pie soon after settling in New Orleans, after being introduced to the nut by Native Americans. It is sometimes referred to as "New Orleans pecan pie," adding an aura of French cuisine to a home-cooked comfort food. Attempts to trace the origin have, however, not found any recipes earlier than 1925, and well-known cookbooks such as Fannie Farmer and The Joy of Cooking did not include it before 1940. (In any case, the process for refining corn sugar was not developed until the 1880s, so, needless to say, the corn syrup which is considered an essential part of the modern recipe was not available to the settlers of New Orleans).

There is no doubt that the makers of Karo syrup popularized the dish, and many recipes—even one ascribed to a well-known New Orleans restaurant—specify Karo syrup by name as an ingredient. This suggests a prosaic 20th-century origin in Karo promotion, and in fact the maker's website currently credits the dish as a 1930s "discovery" of a "new use for corn syrup" by a corporate sales executive's wife. The company asserts that "Down South, today, that same recipe continues to be called Karo Pie" but in fact this name for the dish seems to be rare.

Although the standard recipes call for corn syrup, cookbook author Mark Bittman comments "There are two kinds of pecan pie, one of which contains not only sugar but corny syrup. I don't like this version—not only is it too sweet, if you taste corn syrup by itself you'll never cook with it again." The version he favors uses white and brown sugar, no corn syrup, and "thickens the sugar with eggs—in other words, it's a custard pie, loaded with pecans."

Quotations

Pecan pie is often mentioned in American literature as associated with Christmas and other special occasions; for example:

Tonight was the monthly meeting and potluck dinner of the Lost River Community Association... Frances had brought two covered dishes, one a green-bean casserole, the other a macaroni and cheese, and several desserts. Mildred, who had prepared fried chicken and a pork roast, heard the phone ringing, but ignored it... After another trip to the car for two cakes and three pecan pies, the phone was still ringing.

—Fannie Flagg

The only kitchen item I usually bring to Italy is plastic wrap... This time, however, I have brought one bag of Georgia pecans and a can of cane syrup, pecan pie being a necessary ingredient of Christmas.

—Frances Mayes

Dooley handed them a basket stuffed with fruit, nuts, candy, a tinned ham, and a pecan pie. "Merry Christmas!" he said.

—Jan Karon

Pecan Pie is also a 2002 short movie starring Jim Carrey and written/directed by Michel Gondry. Carrey's character sings a song about "pecan pie" while driving a bed fitted with a Volkswagen engine and chassis.

References

• Pecans Claim of origination by French in early New Orleans
• Food timeline: Pie and pastry No recipes earlier than 1925, not in Fannie Farmer or Joy before 1940, Karo origin suggested
• Karo syrup—Life's sweetest little secret Company website acknowledging/claiming 1930s origination of the recipe
• Pecan Pie Recipe from well-known New Orleans restaurant both asserts the French settler tradition and calls for Karo syrup by name
• Pecans—the true blue-blooded Americans "some suggest the wife of a Karo Corn Syrup executive may have developed the pie..."
• teenhollywood.com interview with Jim Carrey

• Mark Bittman , How to Cook Everything 1998, Macmillan; ISBN 0028610105: Recipe without corn syrup
• Fannie Flagg, A Redbird Christmas: A Novel. 2004; Random House; ISBN 1400063043
• Jan Karon, A Light in the Window (The Mitford Years). 1996; Penguin; ISBN 0140254544
• Frances Mayes , Under the Tuscan Sun. 1997; Broadway; ISBN 0767900383