How to make the legendary American pie

Today, American trees produce hundreds of millions of pounds of pecans a year - about 80% of the world's crop. Much of it stays in the country and goes into milk, butter, pasta and, of course, the famous pecan pie, The Conversation reports.

Botanically, the pecan is not a nut, but a knuckle, like a peach or cherry. The brown "nut-ball" is a seed that forms inside the fruit and is released when the shell ripens and cracks open. The name comes from the Algonquin language word pakani, "a nut too hard to crack by hand."

Pecans are rich in fat, store well and are easy to transport. Not surprisingly, indigenous peoples in the south of what is now the United States have been taking them with them on their journeys for at least 8,000 years: pecans have served as food, medicine, and a valuable commodity for exchange.

The pecan's homeland is the coastal areas and floodplains of the southern United States. For a long time, they were hardly ever planted on purpose: the trees themselves formed thickets and produced crops without human intervention. Pecan bears a characteristic "trait through the year": one season - abundant, the next - weak. But while the nuts were "got" for free, in the southern states the trees were mostly just left alone, harvesting the nuts for themselves.

The first recorded conscious planting of a pecan tree took place far from its natural range, in New York City in 1722. A few years later, pecans appeared on George Washington's Mount Vernon estate - it is known that he loved them very much and ate them constantly.

It was not until the end of the 19th century that southerners fully realised the commercial value of wild pecans. Harvesting became competitive and sometimes dangerous: boys climbed high branches, and in one description a girl was even lifted in a balloon basket to knock nuts off the tree tops. Poaching in private groves has also spread.

The way to real plantations was opened by grafting. The quality of nuts from young trees was unknown for several years, so farmers began grafting branches of "successful" trees onto other pecans. The first attempts were made as early as 1822, but success came later: in about 1846, the enslaved Antoine on a plantation in Louisiana managed to obtain large pecans with thin shells by grafting. His pecans became the first widely known improved variety line - it was called Centennial and introduced to the public in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition.

Today, farmers not only use grafting, but also mechanically "thin" the crop by shaking the trees before maturity, dropping up to half of the nuts that have set. This allows the tree to channel more resources into the remaining fruit and smooth out the "crop year - empty year" swings.

Pecans are deeply embedded in American cuisine. French settlers brought pralines, a candy made of nuts, sugar, butter and cream, to Louisiana. In Europe, almonds were used, but in the colonies, pecans were the only nut available - thus pecan pralines were born.

During the Civil War and the World Wars, pecans became an important source of protein against the backdrop of expensive and scarce meat: an ounce (about 28 g) of pecans provides about the same amount of protein as 56 g of meat. After the wars, demand fell and warehouses were overflowing with surplus. Producers tried to stimulate consumption: in 1924, they held a national pecan recipe contest, which attracted more than 21,000 entries and culminated in the publication of a cookbook.

With the spread of industrially packaged foods and the catalogue trade in the 1870s, pecans became a mass ingredient: they were added to ready meals, granola and cereals, highlighting the benefits of their many vitamins and minerals. A small amount of pecans could be easily mailed and stored at room temperature, a feature that even allowed pecans to be included in the rations of some Apollo missions.

In 1938, the federal government issued a pamphlet called Nuts and How to Use Them, which detailed the nutritional value of the nuts and suggested recipes with pecans, including using them as a "natural fat" instead of cooking fat or oil. The government even imposed a price ceiling to make pecans more affordable, but demand didn't increase and eventually the authorities bought up the surplus, diverting it to the National School Lunch Programme.

Here's a basic, simple recipe for a classic American pecan pie.

Pecan pie (22-24cm mould)

Ingredients

For the base (you can use ready-made shortbread pastry):

• Flour - 200 g

• Cold butter - 120 g

• Sugar - 1 tbsp.

• Egg - 1 piece (or 2-3 tbsp. cold water)

• A pinch of salt

For the filling:

• Pecan kernels - 200-250 g

• Eggs - 3 pcs.

• Brown sugar - 150 g (can be replaced with regular sugar)

• Corn syrup - 150 ml

  • if you don't have it, you can replace it with a mixture of:

    • 100 g sugar + 50 ml hot water (dissolve)

• Melted butter - 50 g

• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp. (or a packet of vanilla sugar)

• A pinch of salt

How to prepare

1. Base

1. Mix together the flour, salt and sugar.

2. Add cold cubed butter, rub into crumbs (with your hands or in a food processor).

3. Stir in the egg (or water) until a soft dough forms, quickly form into a ball.

4. Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

5. Roll out the dough, place in a mould (bottom + sides), trim off the excess.

6. Prick the bottom with a fork, cover with baking parchment, put a load (beans, peas).

7. Bake at 180 °C for about 10-12 minutes, then remove the weight and parchment.

2. Filling

1. Lightly toast the pecans in a dry pan for 3-5 minutes (optional) and cool.

2. In a bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk (until smooth, not foamy).

3. Add sugar, syrup (or substitute), melted butter, vanilla, salt. Stir.

4. Coarsely chop most of the nuts (about 2/3) and stir into the mixture.

3. Assembly and baking

1. Pour the filling onto the baked base.

2. Arrange the remaining whole pecan halves on top in a nice layer.

3. Bake at 170-180 °C for about 35-45 minutes, until the filling is set and lightly browned.

   • The centre may jiggle slightly, but should not be runny.

4. Cool completely in the mould (the filling will solidify completely as it cools).

Serving

• Serve at room temperature or slightly warm.

• Very good with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.