A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough shell that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Pies can be either "filled", where a dish is covered by pastry and the filling is placed on top of that, "top-crust," where the filling is placed in a dish and covered with a pastry/potato mash top before baking, or "two-crust," with the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Pies can be a variety of sizes, ranging from bite-size to ones designed for multiple servings.

Reference to “pyes” as food items appeared in England (in a Latin context) as early as the 12th Century, but no unequivocal reference to the item with which the article is concerned is attested in the Oxford English Dictionary until the 14th century (Oxford English Dictionary sb pie).

Regional variations

Meat pies with fillings such as steak, cheese, steak and kidney, minced beef, or chicken and mushroom are popular in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand as take-away snacks. They are also served with chips as an alternative to fish and chips at British chip shops.
Pot pies with a flaky crust and bottom are also a popular American dish, typically with a filling of meat (particularly beef, chicken or turkey), gravy, and mixed vegetables (potatoes, carrots and peas). Frozen pot pies are often sold in individual serving size.

Fruit pies may be served with a scoop of ice cream, a style known in North America as pie à la mode. Many sweet pies are served this way. Cream is also sometimes considered to be an à la mode serving method as well, and sometimes sour cream is used thus bringing savoury into the classification. Not as an offical or language correct usage although. Apple pie is a traditional choice, though any pie with sweet fillings may be served à la mode. This combination, and possibly the name as well, is thought to have been popularized in the mid-1890s in the United States.

Pie throwing

Cream filled or topped pies are favorite props for humor, particularly when aimed at the pompous. 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, and is often associated with clowns in popular culture. Pranksters have taken to targeting politicians and celebrities with their pies, an act called pieing. Activists sometimes engage in the pieing of political and social targets as well. One such group is the Biotic Baking Brigade. "Pieing" can result in injury to the target and assault or more serious charges against the pie throwers.

Savory pies

• Bacon and egg pie

• Butter pie

• Chicken and mushroom pie

• Corned beef pie

• Cottage pie (and Shepherds' pie)

• Game pie

• Homity pie

• Meat pie

• Pasty

• Pork pie

• Pot pie

• Quiche

• Scotch pie

• Curry pie

• Stargazy pie

• Steak pie

• Steak and kidney pie

Sweet pies

Some of these pies are pies in name only, such as the Boston cream pie, which is a cake. Many fruit and berry pies are very similar, varying only the fruit used in filling.

• Apple pie

• Banana cream pie

• Banoffee pie

• Blackberry pie

• Buko pie

• Cheesecake

• Chess pie

• Cream pie

• Custard pie

• Fried pie

• Key lime pie

• Lemon meringue pie

• Mince pie

• Pecan pie

• Pumpkin pie

• Rhubarb pie

• Shoofly pie - a pie filled with molasses

• Strawberry pie

• Sugar pie

• Sweet potato pie

See also

• Flan

• Pirog

• Tart