Sweet potato pie is a traditional pie with origins in the southern parts of the United States of America, and it's especially popular in North Carolina. The dessert is prepared as an open pie without the top crust; its interior usually filled a combination of milk, eggs, sugar, and mashed sweet potatoes.
It is often flavored with spices such as vanilla or nutmeg in the South, while in the North, some like to top the pie with marshmallow pieces. The tradition of making sweet potato pie in the South has been present since the days of slavery, and African slaves were the first ones to make the dish.
MOST ICONIC Sweet Potato Pie
View moreOne of the hallmarks of traditional American cuisine is the classic pecan pie. It consists of a thin pastry crust that is topped with a mixture of eggs, butter, flour, a sweetener such as brown sugar, syrup, or molasses, and a handful of halved or chopped pecans.
When baked, pecan pie should have the consistency of a thick, silky custard with a pronounced caramel taste. When it initially appeared in written form at the end of the 19th century, it was mostly associated with the American South, but today it represents an authentic American dessert, traditionally prepared on Thanksgiving Day.
MOST ICONIC Pecan Pie
View moreTraditionally associated with the American South (and Virginia in particular), the sweet chess pie consists of a thin pastry crust that is topped with a mixture of eggs, butter, vanilla, cornmeal, and various sweeteners. When baked, the filling turns into a thick, velvety custard, which is best complemented with a dollop of unsweetened whipped cream.
Among numerous theories of the origin and the name of chess pies, the most reasonable one says that it evolved from the British cheese pie, a term formerly used to denote various pies with similar fillings as this Southern classic.
MOST ICONIC Chess Pie
Peach pie is a classic American pie hailing from Georgia, also known as the Peach State. In order to prepare it, a buttery pie crust is filled with sweet local Georgia peaches that are typically picked at the peak of their flavor. The pie crust is made from flour, sugar, salt, butter, shortening, and ice water, while the filling usually includes peaches, sugar, lemon juice, flour, butter, and egg wash.
The pie is baked until the crust becomes deeply golden and the filling is bubbling. Once chilled, it is sliced and served with whipped cream. Interestingly, peach pie is the official state pie of Delaware, because the state was the leading producer of peaches in the 19th century.
MOST ICONIC Georgia Peach Pie
Buttermilk pie is an old-fashioned pie that's especially popular in the American South (Georgia in particular). This light and smooth pie gets its flavor from buttermilk, a bit of vanilla, and some lemon juice. Other ingredients include flour, eggs, butter, and sugar.
Once mixed, the combination is poured into a pie crust, and it's then baked until almost set. Before serving and slicing, buttermilk pie should be cooled. The origins of this pie date back to the Depression and WWII, when women used pantry staples and what they had on hand.
MOST ICONIC Buttermilk Pie
TasteAtlas food rankings are based on the ratings of the TasteAtlas audience, with a series of mechanisms that recognize real users and that ignore bot, nationalist or local patriotic ratings, and give additional value to the ratings of users that the system recognizes as knowledgeable. TasteAtlas Rankings should not be seen as the final global conclusion about food. Their purpose is to promote excellent local foods, instill pride in traditional dishes, and arouse curiosity about dishes you haven’t tried.