Pie filling constitutes the mixture that is used as a stuffing for a pie (a baked dish with a shell made of pastry dough). A vast range of flavorful sweet or savory mixtures are used for filling pies. Meat, fish, vegetables, cheese, fruit, cream chocolate etc. are used as fillings for main dish and dessert pies. Pies are categorized as “filledâ€, “top-crusted†or “two-crusted†depending on the placement of the filling. A “filled†pie has the filling on top of the pastry crust. The “top-crusted†pie has the filling under the crust of the pastry and the “two-crusted†pie has the filling totally covered by the pie crust on both surfaces.
Popular Pie Fillings of Different Cuisines of the World
The English pies are popularly made with meat fillings. Chicken with mushroom, steak and kidney, ground beef, cheese and meat, are some of the most commonly used pie fillings. The American pot pies with a flaky pastry shell are filled with meat or vegetables, or a combination of both. Chicken, turkey, beef, potatoes, carrots or peas are commonly used for making the pie filling mixture.
Apart from the savory main dish pies, a number of sweet pies commonly consumed as desserts are very popular. Fruit fillings with an optional inclusion of ice cream are commonly used as dessert pie fillings. In fact, the North American, pie- a-la-mode style of serving a dessert pie follows this very mode. The Apple Pie is one of the most popular traditional dessert pies.
A number of savory and sweet Pie filling recipes using bacon, eggs, butter, curry, corned beef, fruits, nuts, cream, key lime, molasses and other ingredients are a part of the European and American festive and everyday menus.