Celebrating 3.14 is as easy as…well, you know.
Front view of the McGuffey House and Museum Pie Safe
Ask a random person what a pie safe is, and you are likely to get a blank look. Ask them where they store their leftover pie, and you will also get a blank look – because who has leftover pie?
The people who settled the Ohio Valley, to name just one group. Prior to the 1920s and the development and wide-scale use of refrigeration, food was protected and kept safe to eat in a number of different ways. One of these ways was the use of a piece of furniture known as a pie safe.
A pie safe is a floor-standing cabinet typically built of wood and with a tin or other metal front. The front is pierced with small holes in decorative patterns; this front allowed air to circulate while keeping insects and other critters off the food.
Pie safes are characterized by pierced metal fronts to allow air circulation.
These pieces of furniture could and did hold many types of food in addition to pies, so why were they called pie safes? The answer goes back at least as far as the Middle Ages, and likely much before.
Originally, a pie or “pye” was a food preservation method itself. The crust of flour, water, and fat was intended to seal in and protect the food inside, whether or not the crust itself was eaten. Pies could contain either sweet or savory fillings, and they were easier to transport than meat or fruit on their own. Combined with salt, sugar, and/or spices, a pie could keep food generally safe to eat for at least a few days, a boon for travelers and for cooks who depended on leftovers to keep their families going through the week. The next time you are holding a turnover, a calzone, or an empanada, you are holding a descendent of the original pies.
The Pie Safe at the McGuffey House and Museum
Here at the McGuffey House and Museum, we have a pie safe you can inspect up close and imagine how generations of home cooks would store away their leftovers for dinner the next day or for a midnight snack. I have my doubts, however, whether very many of these safes held apple, strawberry, blueberry, or peach pie for very long. After all, everyone wants seconds of pie.