I heard the expression “As American as apple pie” on the radio 3 times today. Just how American is apple pie?

While the Apple Pie is not an American invention but it became a staple dish. Apples grew well here and the wholesome simplicity of the dish fit with well with the local way of life. Apple seeds were first brought by the European settlers who were trying to recreate their home cuisine in the New World. Jamestown's Captain John Smith notes that in 1629 apples were amongst the fruit trees that "prosper exceedingly" in the colony. The apple pie was popular for lots of different nationalities: English, Dutch, French.

As the settlements expanded westward, so did the spread of apples. There was a guy named John Chapman, for example, who in the late 1700s took on planting apple trees all along the frontier, through large parts of Pennsylvania Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Chapman’s beloved apples became American symbol by association.

During the American Revolution luxury was associated with the British. For the revolutionaries the Old World was morally decayed and there was a push to break away from the corrupting luxury. The change included food: the complex French dishes were rejected and simple presentations were praised. Eating pie was just fine.

In 1878 Amelia Simmons, author of the first American cookbook, called for people to grow more apples. The book includes recipes for two types of apple pie, one with stewed and one with uncooked apples, and crust similar to the one used today. By the end of the 1800s there were more than 14,000 varieties of apple grown in the US. Today there are much less but the US is still top apple producer in the world.

The apple pie was often mentioned in popular culture. In 1869 Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel "Oldtown Folks" says that "the pie is an English tradition, which, planted on American soil, forthwith ran rampant and burst forth into an untold variety of genera and species." The phrase "as American as apple pie" is said to have been spotted as early as the 1860s, although exact sources are lacking.

In 1902 in the "NY Times" mentions that "No pie-eating people can be permanently vanquished" in an article relating pie and national success.

With the Prohibition stopping the production of hard cider, apple growers were happy to promote the apple as more of a food item.

During World War II there was a common slogan which said that soldiers fought "for mom and apple pie", which further turned into the phrase "as American as motherhood and apple pie". By the 1960s the motherhood had dropped out of the phrase since it was obviously not a strictly American thing.