Pecan pie

Pecan pie is a dessert made with pecan nuts in a filling of eggs, butter, and sugar, most often corn syrup. Other sweeteners like white or brown sugar, cane syrup, sugar syrup, molasses, maple syrup, or honey can be used. It is frequently served during American holiday meals and is regarded as a specialty of the Southern United States. Salt and vanilla are common flavorings, and it is often topped with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or hard sauce.

No recipe for pecan pie has been found earlier than a pecan custard pie published in Harper's Bazaar in 1886. The pie existed before corn syrup was invented, with older recipes using darker sugar-based syrup or molasses. A 1929 congressional club cookbook included a version using only eggs, milk, sugar, and pecans. The makers of Karo syrup helped popularize the dish and created many variations, such as caramel, cinnamon, Irish cream, and peanut butter. The company claims the pie was a 1930s "discovery" by a sales executive's wife as a new use for corn syrup. Well-known cookbooks like *Fannie Farmer* and *The Joy of Cooking* did not include it before 1940. Pecan pie became closely tied to Southern culture in the 1940s and 1950s.

Pecans are native to the southern United States, with archaeological evidence from Texas showing Native Americans used them over 8,000 years ago. The word "pecan" comes from an early 18th-century Algonquin word, *pakani*, meaning a nut. Sugar pies like treacle tart existed in medieval Europe and were adapted in North America using local ingredients, leading to dishes such as shoofly pie, sugar cream pie, butter tart, and chess pie. Some pecan pie recipes may be a variant of chess pie, which uses a similar butter-sugar-egg mixture with milk or condensed milk for a custard. Some claim the French invented pecan pie soon after settling in New Orleans, after learning about the nut from the Quinipissa and Tangipahoa tribes. Claims of pecan pie existing in early 1800s Alabama are not supported by recipes or literature.

Pecan pie appears often in American literature and television, linked to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other special occasions. It is a staple of the Southern U.S. and is used symbolically in writing to represent the South. In 2013, the Texas Legislature designated it the official State Pie of Texas.

Variations include Alice Colombo's Race Day chocolate pecan pie, named after a food editor for the *Louisville Courier-Journal* and made for the Kentucky Derby, with cornstarch, bourbon, chocolate chips, and whipped cream. Butterscotch pecan pie adds butterscotch chips and brown sugar alongside corn syrup. Chocolate brownie pecan pie has nuts on top and layers of chocolate pudding and fudge, served at room temperature or chilled. Maple pecan pie includes maple syrup and almond extract. Pecan tassies are mini versions baked in small cups or mini-muffin pans, first appearing in U.S. newspapers in the 1950s–60s and featured in the movie *Steel Magnolias*; the name likely comes from the Scottish word for little cup or the French *la tasse*. Sawdust pie has an egg-batter filling with coconut, graham cracker crumbs, and pecans, topped with whipped cream and sliced bananas, originating in the late 1800s at Patti's Restaurant in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, named for its texture. Transparent pie is a regular pecan pie without pecans, using nutmeg or lemon juice instead of vanilla, and appears transparent when served at room temperature. Whiskey chocolate chip pecan pie adds chocolate chips and a few teaspoons of Jack Daniel whiskey.

In the United States, pecan pies are sold at bakeries, cafes, farmers markets, and grocery stores.