Buttermilk pie is a

pie in American cuisine Pie in American cuisine evolved over centuries from savory game pies. When sugar became more widely available, women began making simple sweet fillings with a handful of basic ingredients. By the 1920s and 1930s there was growing consensus that ...

. Associated with the

cuisine of the Southern United States The cuisine of the Southern United States encompasses diverse food traditions of several subregions, including Indigenous cuisine of the Americas, cuisine of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern Native American tribes, ...

, it may be considered a desperation pie, made using simple, staple ingredients. It is similar to, and sometimes confused with,

chess pie Chess pie is a dessert with a filling composed mainly of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes milk, characteristic of Cuisine of the Southern United States, Southern United States cuisine. Jefferson Davis pie is similar to chess pie, but J ...

, but it does not include

cornmeal Maize meal is a meal (coarse flour) ground from dried maize. It is a common staple food and is ground to coarse, medium, and fine consistencies, but it is not as fine as wheat flour can be.Herbst, Sharon, ''Food Lover's Companion'', Third Editi ...

. The basic filling consists of a mixture of sugar, butter, eggs,

buttermilk Buttermilk is a fermented dairy drink. Traditionally, it was the liquid left behind after churning butter out of cultured cream. As most modern butter in Western countries is not made with cultured cream but uncultured sweet cream, most mode ...

, and wheat flour. Variations on the recipe include

vanilla Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus ''Vanilla (genus), Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the flat-leaved vanilla (''Vanilla planifolia, V. planifolia''). ''Vanilla'' is not Autogamy, autogamous, so pollination ...

lemon zest Zest is a food ingredient that is prepared by scraping or cutting from the rind of unwaxed citrus fruits such as lemon, orange, citron, and lime. Zest is used to add flavor to many different types of food. In terms of fruit anatomy, the zes ...

nutmeg Nutmeg is the seed, or the ground spice derived from the seed, of several tree species of the genus '' Myristica''; fragrant nutmeg or true nutmeg ('' M. fragrans'') is a dark-leaved evergreen tree cultivated for two spices derived from its fru ...

, and

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (biology), family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, ...

. Buttermilk pies are made with a pie crust. The filling is poured into the crust and

baked Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but it can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. Bread is the most commonly baked item, but many other types of food can also be baked. Heat is gradually t ...

until the mixture sets. The pie is best eaten at room temperature after being allowed to cool, but may be eaten either warm from the oven or after being chilled.

References

American pies Sweet pies Custard desserts Cuisine of the Southern United States Foods featuring butter Historical foods in American cuisine {{pie-stub

See also

References