Which bird may have given the pie its name, and why did the White House serve no pumpkin pie in 1947? These pie trivia questions fill four rounds, with apple and pumpkin each given a round.
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Four rounds, from magpies to sugar pumpkins
The word and the oldest pies starts with a priory's accounts of 1303. From Tudor tables to the frontier serves a queen her cherry pie and names the desperation pie. Apple pie tells a lattice from a crumb top. Pumpkin pie follows the pompion to the South and back.
For a bake sale, a harvest supper or March 14
The card shows a question and four answers. Touch your pick: it turns right or wrong, and a sentence under it says why and where the fact was read. Ten questions make one set.
Questions and answers
Where does the word pie come from?
Nobody is sure. Its first known use is from 1303, in the accounts of Bolton Priory in Yorkshire. One suggestion links it to the magpie, a bird that collects odds and ends, as medieval pies held many different meats.
When was apple pie invented?
Apple pie was first recorded in England in the 14th century, in a recipe of apples, spices, figs, raisins and pears in a pastry case. It was brought to the American colonies by the English, the Dutch and the Swedes.
What does pie à la mode mean?
In North America it means a fruit pie served with a scoop of ice cream. The combination, and possibly the name, is thought to have been popularized in the United States in the mid-1890s.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article linked under it: Pie, Apple pie or Pumpkin pie. Food brands, record pies and eating records, surveys of favorite pies and health claims are left out.
The 14th-century French chef Taillevent built a pie so high that it looked like a model of what?Answer: A castle. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Early pies were flat, crusty cakes of ground oats, wheat, rye or barley. What did they hold inside?Answer: Honey. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Evidence of early sweet pastries is on the tomb walls of which pharaoh in the Valley of the Kings?Answer: Ramesses II. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
The first known use of the word pie is in the expense accounts of a priory in 1303. In which English county was the priory?Answer: Yorkshire. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
The first written reference to a Roman pie is a rye dough filled with honey and which cheese?Answer: Goat's cheese. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
In the earliest English pie recipes, what were open-top pies called?Answer: Traps. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Medieval pastry was often baked first into a container with a removable top crust. Which name for a pie comes from this?Answer: Pot pie. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Not until which century were ceramic pie dishes used?Answer: The 16th century. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
One source suggested for the word pie is a bird known for collecting odds and ends in its nest. Which bird?Answer: The magpie. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
The Romans covered meats and fowls with a plain pastry before baking. What was the covering for?Answer: To keep in the juices; it was not meant to be eaten. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Sometime before 2000 BC a recipe for chicken pie was written on a tablet. Where?Answer: Sumer. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Why did European royal cooks often place a cooked bird on top of a large pie?Answer: To show what was inside. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
From Tudor tables to the frontier 12
Banoffee pie is named for its two main ingredients. What are they?Answer: Bananas and toffee. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
The first cherry pie is recorded in the late 16th century. Which queen was it served to?Answer: Elizabeth I. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
For which occasion was Elizabeth I often given gifts of quince or pear pies?Answer: New Year. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
In which century did puff paste begin to be used to make flakier pies?Answer: The 16th century. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Mince pie is now made with fruit. What was it formerly made with?Answer: Finely minced meat. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Pies made with very few ingredients, to stretch meager provisions, later came to be known as what?Answer: Desperation pies. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Until the start of the 15th century, what were most pies expected to contain?Answer: Meat or fish. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
What is a fruit pie served with a scoop of ice cream called in North America?Answer: Pie à la mode. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
What was often added to apple pies in Tudor and Stuart times?Answer: Rosewater. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Which 17th-century writer compared a skilled pie cook to a builder of forts who makes "ramparts of immortal crusts"?Answer: Ben Jonson. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Which sweetener was important in pies of the Northern states, after Indigenous people showed settlers how to get it?Answer: Maple syrup. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Why did apple pie become popular with American colonists?Answer: Apples were easy to dry and store over the winter. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
Apple pie 12
A serving style from 17th-century England puts something on top of a slice of apple pie. What?Answer: A piece of sharp cheese. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
Baking the pastry base of a pie on its own, so that it does not go soggy, is known as what?Answer: Blind-baking. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
Before European varieties were planted, what were the only native apples in America?Answer: Crabapples. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
Dried apple pie is prominent in the cooking of the Pennsylvania Dutch. What do they call it?Answer: Schnitz pie. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
In the 14th-century apple pie of the Forme of Cury, what colors the filling?Answer: Saffron. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
In the United Kingdom, what is the traditional thing to serve with apple pie?Answer: Custard. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
In the United States, what kind of top does a "Dutch apple pie" have?Answer: A crumb top. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
In which country was apple pie first recorded, in the 14th century?Answer: England. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
Mock apple pie has no apples in it. What is it made from?Answer: Crackers. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
What is apple pie called in Poland?Answer: Szarlotka. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
What is the top crust of a pie called when it is woven of crosswise strips?Answer: A lattice. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
Which French apple tart is baked with the pastry on top and served the other way up?Answer: Tarte Tatin. Source: Wikipedia: Apple pie
Pumpkin pie 12
About how big is a sugar pumpkin?Answer: The size of a large grapefruit. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
After the Civil War, where in the United States was pumpkin pie resisted as a symbol of Yankee culture?Answer: The Southern states. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
From which decade was pumpkin pie fashionable in England, before it fell out of favor in the 18th century?Answer: The 1650s. Source: Wikipedia: Pie
How does the crust of a pumpkin pie usually differ from that of an apple pie?Answer: It has a single shell and no top crust. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
In 1947 Americans were asked to leave pumpkin pie off the Thanksgiving table. Which ingredient was being saved?Answer: Eggs. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
Not until which century did pumpkin pie become a common addition to the Thanksgiving dinner?Answer: The nineteenth century. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
Pumpkin pie brought together European wheat, North American pumpkins and sugar from which islands?Answer: The Canary Islands. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
What are the pumpkins typically used for pies made from fresh pumpkin called?Answer: Sugar pumpkins. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
When is pumpkin generally in season?Answer: From mid-October through November. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
When the pumpkin reached Tudor England, its flesh was quickly accepted as pie filling. What was the pumpkin called there?Answer: The pompion. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
Which pie did many Southern cooks make in place of pumpkin pie?Answer: Sweet potato pie. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
Which president kept pumpkin pie off the White House table at Thanksgiving in 1947?Answer: Harry Truman. Source: Wikipedia: Pumpkin pie
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. The questions and the wrong choices are our own. Every answer was read on October 3, 2026 in one of three English Wikipedia articles, Pie, Apple pie or Pumpkin pie (en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license); each question links the article that states its fact, and each explanation restates that article in our own sentence. Left out on purpose: food brands and restaurant chains, record-size pies and eating records, surveys of favorite pies, nutrition and the old health quarrel over pie, cider, ale and rum, and cakes as offerings in ancient rites. Facts that other packs on this site already ask (the custard filling and the spices of pumpkin pie, the cookbook of 1796, the blackbirds of the nursery rhyme, the pastry cases called coffins, key lime pie and Boston cream pie) are not asked again. Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, hard will stump most. Licence: own work