A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients.

"[4] Early pies were in the form of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes called galettes consisting of a crust of ground oats, wheat, rye, or barley containing honey inside.

These galettes developed into a form of early sweet pastry or desserts, evidence of which can be found on the tomb walls of the Pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled from 1304 to 1237 BC, located in the Valley of the Kings.

[5] In the plays of Aristophanes (5th century BC), there are mentions of sweetmeats including small pastries filled with fruit.

The Romans made a plain pastry of flour, oil, and water to cover meats and fowls which were baked, thus keeping in the juices.

The Roman approach of covering "...birds or hams with dough" has been called more of an attempt to prevent the meat from drying out during baking than an actual pie in the modern sense.

A richer pastry, intended to be eaten, was used to make small pasties containing eggs or little birds which were among the minor items served at banquets.

[6] The first written reference to a Roman pie is for a rye dough that was filled with a mixture of goat's cheese and honey.

[9] Medieval cooks had restricted access to ovens due to their costs of construction and need for abundant supplies of fuel.

The hardened coffyn pastry was not necessarily eaten, its function being to contain the filling for baking, and to extend its shelf-life.

[3] In 1390, the English cookbook A Forme of Cury had a recipe for “tartes of flesh”, which included a ground-up mixture of "pork, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese" blended with "spices, saffron, and sugar".

[14] The "cofyn" dough for the 14th-century apple pie recipe from The Forme of Cury was probably a simple mix of water and whatever flour was available in late middle ages.

At the coronation of eight-year-old English King Henry VI (1422–1461) in 1429, "Partrich" and "Pecok enhakill" were served, alleged by some modern writers to consist of cooked peacock mounted in its skin on a peacock-filled pie.

[17] During the Puritan era of Oliver Cromwell, some sources claim mince pie eating was banned as a frivolous activity for 16 years, so mince pie making and eating became an underground activity; the ban was lifted in 1660, with the Restoration of the monarchy.

[14] According to Markham, crusts made with fine wheat flour required the addition of eggs to be sturdy enough for raised pies.

Believe me, I am not jesting, but if all the spoilt pies made in London on one single Sunday were to be exhibited in a row beside a railway line, it would take above an hour by special train to pass in review these culinary victims".

Colonists appreciated the food preservation aspect of crusty-topped pies, which were often seasoned with "dried fruit, cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg".

[29] Once the British had established Caribbean colonies, sugar became less expensive and more widely available, which meant that sweet pies could be readily made.

[3] Molasses was popular in American pies due to the rum and slave trade with the Caribbean Islands, and maple syrup was an important sweetener in Northern states, after Indigenous people taught settlers how to tap maple trees and boil down the sap.

[27] In the Midwest, cheese and cream pies were popular, due to the availability of big dairy farms.

[27] In the 1950s, after WWII, the popularity of pies rebounded in the US, especially with commercial food inventions such as instant pudding mixes, Cool Whip topping, and Jello gelatin (which could be used as fillings) ready-made crusts, which were sold frozen, and alternative crusts made with crushed potato chips.

Pot pies with a flaky crust and bottom are also a popular dish, typically with a filling of meat (particularly beef, chicken, or turkey), gravy, and mixed vegetables (potatoes, carrots, and peas).

[citation needed] Cold pigeon pies and venison pasties appear in novels by Jane Austen, but also more generally in writing in the 18th century.

[32] The character Mrs Elton, from the 1815 novel Emma, believes herself to be modern, but nevertheless plans to take 'pigeon-pies and cold lamb' to a country outing to Box Hill and consults George Turberville's 1575 work The Noble Art of Venerie (1575) for advice.

[16] The expression "pie in the sky", to refer to an unlikely proposal or idea, comes from "The Preacher and the Slave", a 1911 Joe Hill song.

Throwing a pie in a person's face has been a staple of film comedy since Ben Turpin received one in Mr. Flip in 1909.