Transcript

Short Stuff: Pies | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

From Stuff You Should Know · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

November 29, 2025 · 18 min · 3,466 words · 85 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Short Stuff: Pies | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW", an episode of Stuff You Should Know published November 29, 2025 (18 min, about 3,466 words). It mentions 65 people, works and ideas, including apple pie, key lime pie, pumpkin pie, meat pie, pumpkins.

What this episode is about

The discussion explores the history and evolution of pies, tracing their origins back to ancient Egypt over 8,000 years ago, where early versions included grains and honey. It highlights the Greeks' contributions to pie-making, such as the use of pastry dough, and contrasts the savory meat pies they favored with the potential sweetness of desserts that emerged later.

Key takeaways

Pie: humanity's ancient culinary multitasker since crop domestication, from Egyptian galettes to stuffed European coffins.
Romans didn't add flavor to pie; they added Europe, setting up centuries of culinary globalization.
Greeks transformed pies, making pastry dough a historic leap but committed the 'meat over sweet' crime.
Empty 16th-century pies weren't madness; they were table showpieces—culinary theater, not food.
English pies were 'coffins' with legs as handles; not just food, but a medieval utensil innovation.

Who speaks in this episode?

Josh Clark (Host) · 9 min speaking
Charles "Chuck" Bryant (Host) · 8 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

0:00 – 3:00: meat pie, domesticating crops, Ethiopia, Jamaican
3:00 – 6:00: German cookbook, medieval England, pork pie hats, pork pies
6:00 – 9:00: Mayflower, Native American, pumpkin pie, pumpkins
9:00 – 12:00: apple pie, pumpkin pie, Amelia Simmons, American Cookery
12:00 – 15:00: Boston cream pie, Parker House rolls, 16th century, apple pie
15:00 – 17:34: key lime pie, Aunt Sally, Bordon Condensed Milk Company, Curry House

Notable quotes from "Short Stuff: Pies | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW"

About the merits of pie. And of course, there's also the great legendary, I dare say Paula Tommpkins bit on Cake Versus Pi.
about Paula Tommpkins · at 0:27
Historic crime. They replaced sweet stuff like honey with meats. I like a good meat pie, but I feel like we had not gotten into sweet pies enough to be from that yet. Yeah.
about meat pie · at 1:33
So, we got to talk about pumpkin pie which was brought to the new world by the colonist on the Mayflower.
about pumpkin pie · at 8:23
That's why the French thing was so puzzling. But apple pie, 100% American.
about apple pie · at 10:03
We could talk cherry pie briefly.
about cherry pie · at 11:42
Boston cream pie is worth a mention. You might be That's not even a pie.
about Boston cream pie · at 12:37
Opening of the Parker House Hotel in 1856, which is got to be where Parker House rolls come from, right?
about Parker House rolls · at 13:28
And then let's move on to key lime pie because this is the pride of Florida. If you've never had a slice of key lime pie, you're you're you're cheating yourself essentially. Just get.
about key lime pie · at 14:35

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Paula Tommpkins — Person · 1 mention · first at 0:31
Amelia Simmons — Person · 1 mention · first at 9:41
That's right. In 1796, it was in the very first American cookbook, in fact, from Amelia Simmons called American Cookery by an American Orphan.
Herbert Hoover — Person · 1 mention · first at 10:57
Apple pie. Apparently, that was first used in print in 1928 to describe First Lady Lou Hoover, Herbert Hoover's well wife, gal. They said that she's as American as apple pie. Okay, that's one way it got associated with it. Another one is.
Lou Hoover — Person · 1 mention · first at 10:57
Apple pie. Apparently, that was first used in print in 1928 to describe First Lady Lou Hoover, Herbert Hoover's well wife, gal. They said that she's as American as apple pie. Okay, that's one way it got associated with it. Another one is.
Unidentified Dateline fan (Attendee 1) — Person · 1 mention · first at 12:27
Okay. But that one apparently the first cherry pie was either created for Queen Elizabeth the 1 in the 16th century or by her.
Aunt Sally — Person · 1 mention · first at 15:29
Are a purist and you want to know where it comes from, supposedly the local lore is that a woman only known as Aunt Sally, okay, made them in the late 19th century down in Key West, at the Curry House,.
William Curry — Person · 1 mention · first at 15:41
In Key West, at the Curry House, which was the estate of Florida's first millionaire, William Curry. So, he was important and a really good guy. But she came up with this as a…
Little Chuck — Person · 1 mention

Books & papers

German cookbook — Book · 1 mention · first at 5:15
Started appearing in Europe in cookbooks like way back in the 1300s. I think there was a German cookbook you dug up from 1553. I didn't actually look in the cookbook itself. I just saw a reference to it.
American Cookery — Book · 1 mention · first at 9:41
That's right. In 1796, it was in the very first American cookbook, in fact, from Amelia Simmons called American Cookery by an American Orphan.
American Cookery by an American Orphan — Book · 1 mention · first at 9:41
That's right. In 1796, it was in the very first American cookbook, in fact, from Amelia Simmons called American Cookery by an American Orphan.
Washington Pie — Book · 1 mention · first at 13:05
The reason it's called Boston cream pie is because it's based on another recipe called Washington Pie.
Cider House Rules — Book · 1 mention · first at 13:39
I've heard of Cider House Rules, but Parker House rolls are one of the best things in the world. You know them if you've seen them.
Sing a Song of Sixpence — Book · 1 mention

Companies & orgs

The Pie Hole — Company · 1 mention · first at 7:11
Pie hatch. The pie hole. Yeah, the pie hole.
House of Pies — Company · 1 mention · first at 12:01
Yeah. And House of Pies in Los Felis in Los Angeles, the neighborhood where I lived had all kinds of great pies, but like I want like a warm cherry pie. I don't want like the cold one that where.
Parker House Hotel — Company · 1 mention · first at 13:28
That's right. And notably, it was invented for the opening, the grand opening of the Parker House Hotel in 1856, which is got to be where Parker House rolls come from, right?
Kings Hawaiian — Company · 1 mention · first at 14:02
It sounds like Kings Hawaiian kind of.
Omni Hotel — Company · 1 mention · first at 14:22
I've actually stayed in the Parker House. It's now Omni Hotel.
Bordon Condensed Milk Company — Company · 1 mention · first at 16:03
And I think they were supposedly adapted from a recipe from New York for magic lemon cream pies that the Bordon Condensed Milk Company put out in the 1930s. But some people say…
Stuff You Should Know — Company · 1 mention · first at 17:14
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
iHeart Radio — Company · 1 mention · first at 17:15
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Word — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

pumpkins — Product · 2 mentions · first at 8:37
They're called pumpkins. And one day they will invent spices to put with these that taste nothing like pumpkins, but you will totally associate that with pumpkin,.
Parker House rolls — Product · 2 mentions · first at 13:31
pork pie hats — Product · 1 mention · first at 3:16
spices — Product · 1 mention · first at 8:41
They're called pumpkins. And one day they will invent spices to put with these that taste nothing like pumpkins, but you will totally associate that with pumpkin, right? And so like the first pumpkin.
ube condensed milk — Product · 1 mention · first at 16:22
Yeah. Again, I want to shout out the ube condensed milk. It's not bored and I don't remember who makes it, but oh my god, it's seriously, you'll never taste anything that has a better taste than.
ready whip — Product · 1 mention · first at 16:56
Yeah, not my I'd rather replace it with ready whip though.
iHeart Radio app — Product · 1 mention · first at 17:18
Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
honey — Product · 1 mention

Concepts & topics

apple pie — Concept · 6 mentions · first at 10:05
key lime pie — Concept · 4 mentions · first at 14:35
pumpkin pie — Concept · 3 mentions · first at 8:23
meat pie — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 1:39
cherry pie — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 11:42
Boston cream pie — Concept · 2 mentions · first at 12:37
domesticating crops — Concept · 1 mention · first at 1:06
And you said 8,000 years ago. That's not that long after we started domesticating crops, which means that pies were one of the first things we started making when we created agriculture.
pastry dough — Concept · 1 mention · first at 1:47
One of the other thing the Greeks did though was they created pastry dough like we would think of pastry dough today essentially.
pork pies — Concept · 1 mention · first at 3:11
And one other thing, Chuck, do you remember when we were in the UK on tour and I got hooked on pork pies?
Mayflower — Concept · 1 mention · first at 8:27
So, we got to talk about pumpkin pie which was brought to the new world by the colonist on the Mayflower.
Native American — Concept · 1 mention · first at 8:34
But it's interesting because when they got here, Native Americans were Hey, look at these things we got.
Dutch apple pie — Concept · 1 mention · first at 10:24
By the colonists. And I think we all know that the perfect apple pie is that Dutch apple pie. And they're the ones they were the OGs. A couple of years, couple sorry, a couple…
16th century — Concept · 1 mention · first at 12:27
Okay. But that one apparently the first cherry pie was either created for Queen Elizabeth the 1 in the 16th century or by her.
Legion's disease — Concept · 1 mention · first at 14:30
Actually, one of the only times I was ever worried about getting Legion's disease was when I stayed there.
pecan pie — Concept · 1 mention · first at 14:57
Yeah, pecan pie. Yeah, those are my top three. Pecan pie, Dutch apple, and key lime.
late 19th century — Concept · 1 mention · first at 15:33
Sally, okay, made them in the late 19th century down in Key West, at the Curry House, which was the estate of Florida's first millionaire, William Curry. So, he was important and a really.
magic lemon cream pies — Concept · 1 mention · first at 16:01
That they came later than that. and I think they were supposedly adapted from a recipe from New York for magic lemon cream pies that the Bordon Condensed Milk Company put out…
lemon ice box pie — Concept · 1 mention · first at 16:37
I'm going to move on to that for my family, my grandmother made, she called it lemon ice box pie.
1856 — Concept · 1 mention
1928 — Concept · 1 mention
1930s — Concept · 1 mention
Dutch — Concept · 1 mention
Europe in royal courts of Europe — Concept · 1 mention
GIs — Concept · 1 mention
tarts — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

Ethiopia — Place · 1 mention · first at 2:17
That's pie. That's pie. there's something called sambusa in Ethiopia, which is a ham pie. There's obviously empadas from Spain and then Latin America.
Quebec — Place · 1 mention · first at 2:39
Yeah. And then there's Tortiier from Quebec, which also sounds pretty great.
Jamaican — Place · 1 mention · first at 2:55
Word pie, I immediately think of like a sweet dessert pie, but I love a Jamaican hand pie or a I say empanada. I guess it is impata, isn't it?
medieval England — Place · 1 mention · first at 4:44
It as one thing onto a table. that was the point of pies. They didn't care about pastries in medieval England. like the actual crust was considered inedible by the rich, but…
Los Felis — Place · 1 mention · first at 12:01
Yeah. And House of Pies in Los Felis in Los Angeles, the neighborhood where I lived had all kinds of great pies, but like I want like a warm cherry pie. I don't want like the cold one that where.
Florida Keys — Place · 1 mention · first at 15:12
And buy a slice of key lime pie there, it's going to be as good as one that you get in the Florida Keys.
Curry House — Place · 1 mention · first at 15:36
Okay, made them in the late 19th century down in Key West, at the Curry House, which was the estate of Florida's first millionaire, William Curry. So, he was important and a really good guy. But she came up with this as a.
Key West — Place · 1 mention · first at 15:36
Okay, made them in the late 19th century down in Key West, at the Curry House, which was the estate of Florida's first millionaire, William Curry. So, he was important and a really good guy. But she came up with this as a.
Spain — Place · 1 mention

Full transcript with timestamps

0:04 Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. This delicious short stuff. I'm Josh. There's Chuck. Jerry's not here. Dave's not here. But a bunch of pie talk is here. So, strap in everybody. Actually, I should say unbuckle everybody.

0:17 That's right. Unbuckle that the that top button or that belt loop because uh this made me want to eat pie. I love pie. I think we talked a little bit about pie in our cake episode.

0:27 Sure. About the merits of pie. And of course, there's also the great uh legendary, I dare say Paula Tommpkins bit on Cake Versus Pi.

0:36 Oh, I'm not sure about that one. Yeah, it's from way back in the day. Uh it's a good bit. But pie has been around for way before Paul Tommpkins, thousands of years. Uh but it's only in the last like couple few hundred years that it's like what we kind of know as pie. Mhm.

0:51 Um, but they had it 8,000 years ago in Egypt if you count kind of a a messy semieet, you know, rustic smorges board of of grains.

1:01 Sure. Called galletes, right? Yeah. And you said 8,000 years ago. That's not that long after we started domesticating crops, which means that pies were one of the first things we started making when we created agriculture.

1:14 Yeah. And of course, they used honey as the sweetener back then, and they'd bake it over some hot coals.

1:19 Yeah. Uh, and then the Greeks ganked that, didn't they? They did. About 5,000 years later, they loved taking stuff from the Egyptians and they carried on with gallettes. Um, they did something that I think is a a historic crime. They replaced um sweet stuff like honey with meats. I like a good meat pie, but I feel like we had not gotten into sweet pies enough to be from that yet. Yeah.

1:46 One of the other thing the Greeks did though was um they created pastry dough like we would we would think of pastry dough today essentially.

1:53 Yeah. It's a big leap forward there dough-wise. Uh the Romans of course come along next and uh they didn't add a whole lot to the technique or tradition. Uh what they did was they brought it to Europe and that's where it really flourished was when it was in the hands of the Europeans.

2:10 Yeah. Not just Europe, but like if you look back at dishes from around the world, you're like, "Oh, that's pie. That's pie. That's pie." Um, there's something called sambusa in Ethiopia, which is a ham pie. There's obviously empadas from Spain and then Latin America.

2:25 Spanicopa in Greece. I've not heard of the zeboin, but I would love to try it. It's a savory sweet pie from Germany.

2:34 Shriber. Yes. Yeah. And then there's Tortiier from Quebec, which also sounds pretty great. That's a savory meat pie. Like I say, I like meat pies. Got no problem with meat pies. Yeah, I think that we just I need we need both, I guess.

2:49 Yeah, agreed. Um I mean, when I hear the word pie, I immediately think of like a sweet dessert pie,

2:55 but I love a a Jamaican hand pie or a I say empanada. I guess it is impata, isn't it?

3:02 Yeah. Empata. I couldn't find the end with the till day on the insert thing on Word. So, I got you.

3:08 Um, and one other thing, Chuck, do you remember when we were in the UK on tour and I got hooked on um pork pies?

3:14 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh my god, those are so good. And I got pork pie hats. Yeah, I know you did. It was great. I tried to eat that one

3:23 right off my head. Uh, the English, speaking of the English, that's where things really got interesting because they were like, "Man, throw some fish in that thing. throw any kind of meat in you want. Uh we'll spell it pie and we'll also bake those bones in there as little handles.

3:40 Not just the bones, the legs of like a a game bird, like a feeasant would be sticking out and hanging over the side of the pie.

3:47 Yeah. Just grab it by Grab it by the leg. Yeah. Grab that feeasant like a rabbit.

3:52 I guess that's no different than just eating a chicken leg. Uh it's a little different. I'm talking about like the feet here is what I understand.

4:00 Oh, okay. like the whole leg down to the toenails is what they left on. Toenails?

4:05 Uhhuh. You ever seen a chicken toenail? I haven't looked that closely. I've just always assumed they were there.

4:12 Uh they also um called them coffins. Two Fs and a Y. Again, they love those Y's instead of eyes.

4:17 And of course that means box. Yeah. Because that's what they were making. There was like a sturdy walls, a sturdy bottom, a crust over the top. And these were actually what the Greeks were basically making pies for too. The point of the pie was to seal in the juices of like the savory mixture of meats and stuff, right? Yeah. It was a way to bake a bunch of stuff together and then serve it as one thing onto a table. Um that was the point of pies. They didn't care about pastries in medieval England. like the actual crust was considered inedible by the rich, but the lower classes would eat the pie crust when they had to. Um, so they also made pies without tops whatsoever. Those are tarts. That's what they still call them today. Those, I think, were more pastry edible forward.

5:07 Yeah, I think you're right. Um, if you're talking about recipes, uh, they started appearing in Europe in cookbooks like way back in the 1300s. Uh, I think there was a German cookbook you dug up from 1553. Um,

5:18 I didn't actually look in the cookbook itself. I just saw a reference to it. Oh, sure. Yeah.

5:23 Sorry. That's okay. Uh, but they were like, "Hey, you know what you do? You put a little hole in the middle of that pie and the lid and you blow in it and puff that thing up and then seal it." And that thing [clears throat] is looks great on a table.

5:34 Yeah. But you will notice from that recipe that means there's nothing inside. They were just baking the pie. An empty pie essentially is what they were making. And you would say, well, that's madness. What's the point of that? There's actually a trend in England, I think from the 15th to maybe the 18th centuries where um you would present like at a royal dinner or something like that, an enormous pie um that was filled with live things. So, you would bake the pie pastry and then put the live things in it before you served it. And so that's where you know that rhyme, sing a song of six pence where they talk about four and 20 blackbirds baked into a pie. Isn't that a pretty dish to serve before the king or whatever?

6:16 Yeah, that's what they're talking about is this trend in in Europe in in royal courts of Europe where you would serve like a pie to the king and they cut it open and all these beautiful birds would fly out or a string ensemble would stand up and start playing.

6:32 Yeah. Like if you think you got to have a big pie to put a couple of dozen blackbirds in there. You weren't kidding about the string ensemble. Like they would have a pie big enough. What? What I don't understand is how are they are they not killing these people and birds?

6:46 No. Take the pie pastry first and then put the people in before they served it.

6:52 That's why you How does that work? That's you would you would take the pie, put it together, put the top on, put a hole in it, blow in it, close it up.

6:59 Yeah. But how did the people get in there? Oh, I I'm I'm sure there was like a little door cut into the side or something like that, but they were not anywhere near the pie while it was in the oven.

7:08 Oh, the pie hatch. I wasn't thinking. Pie hatch. The pie hole. Yeah, the pie hole.

7:14 Remember that show? What was it called? Better. No. Pushing up the That guy, the main protagonist had a pie shop called The Pie Hole. Oh, that I've told you about it before. It's such a charming show, Chuck. You got to see it.

7:28 All right. Yeah, you got a long list for me though. that one. Move that one toward the top. It's just a very sweet, neat, cute little show.

7:35 All right. Well, speaking of cute, uh we'll take a break and we'll come back and we'll talk about a few specific all-time great pies right after this. the know. All right, we're back. We're going to mention uh one, two, three, four, five all-time great pies. It is for us in real time. It's uh the week before Thanksgiving. Couple of weeks before Thanksgiving.

8:22 Hubba. Hubba. So, we got to talk about pumpkin pie uh which was brought to the new world by the colonist on the Mayflower. Uh but it's interesting because when they got here, Native Americans were like, "Hey, look at these things we got. They're called pumpkins." And one day they will invent spices to put with these that taste nothing like pumpkins, but you will totally associate that with pumpkin,

8:47 right? And so like the first pumpkin pies were actually not pies at all. Um they were they used the pumpkin themselves as basically the pie crust, put in honey and spices and stuff like that and baked it over hot coals.

9:01 Then they ate that. Um but the thing is you still think of like, okay, well eventually like they it got figured out in the United States or the English colonies, right?

9:12 No, that's not the case. Pumpkin pie actually got exported with the pumpkins in a couple of decades over to France. The first recipe that even mentions a pumpkin pie called the pump pie was published in a French cookbook by a French chef in 1651. And it wouldn't be uh another few decades, actually another century or so before it showed up in a recipe in an American cookbook.

9:37 That's right. In 1796, it was in the the very first American cookbook, in fact, from Amelia Simmons called American Cookery by an American Orphan.

9:45 Mhm. And Yeah, that pumpkin pie was in there. The kind of like the one we know it. It was kind of a pumpkin pudding.

9:52 But that's not super unlike uh pumpkin pie. No, because you baked it in a pie shell. So, if you ask me,

9:58 that's pumpkin pie. Agreed. So, pumpkin pie seems pretty American. That's why the French thing was so puzzling. But apple pie, 100% American. Like, don't even come at me with anything else. Take it, Chuck.

10:12 Well, buddy, apples don't come from America. They're native to Asia. So, they were brought over to the new world by the colonists. And I think we all know that the the perfect apple pie is that Dutch apple pie. And they're the ones they were the OGs. A couple of years, couple sorry, a couple hundred years prior to those apples coming over from Asia, the Dutch had sort of mastered that apple pie. Man, I always assumed it was the 1970s when the Dutch finally made Dutch apple pie.

10:38 No. No. Okay. All right. So, the Dutch had figured out apple pie centuries before it came to America. So, how does the apple pie get associated with America? There's a saying over here, everybody, if you're not familiar, as American as apple pie. Apparently, that was first used um in print in 1928 to describe First Lady Lou Hoover, Herbert Hoover's well wife,

11:01 gal. They said that she's as American as apple pie. Okay, that's one one way it got associated with it. Another one is that apple pie is as American as moms and baseball. Where did that come from, Chuck? Where did that come from?

11:15 Apparently World War II, there was a catchphrase uh for the GIS there when they're like, "Why why you going off to pop this fight this war?" And they would say, "Well, sir, for mom and apple pie, of course."

11:27 They say, "Get out there, boy." That's right. and for us. And if you think that helmet's gonna protect you, you got another thing coming.

11:34 Jeez. What else? That was kind of dark. It got dark going from apple pie to that. But yeah, sure.

11:42 Uh we could talk cherry pie uh briefly. Cherry pie is not my favorite pie, but um I'll opt for pumpkin or apple or certainly key lime, which we'll get to before cherry pie, but I'll eat a piece of cherry pie with some ice cream if you got it for me.

11:55 Yeah, as long as it's not sour. Like a good cherry pie in the vein of a good apple pie I think is excellent stuff.

12:01 Yeah. And House of Pies in Los Felis in Los Angeles, the neighborhood where I lived had all kinds of great pies, but like I want like a a warm cherry pie. I don't want like the cold one that where that jelly has sort of uh you know, I don't like it cold.

12:16 No, that's what I'm saying. If you if you make it and serve it like you would a good piece of apple pie, it's good. I'm with you 100%.

12:23 Okay. But that one apparently the first cherry pie uh was either created for Queen Elizabeth the 1 in the 16th century or by her.

12:31 Yeah, it's one of the oldest pies that is still around today apparently. Yeah. What's next?

12:37 Boston cream pie is worth a mention. You might be like, "That's not even a pie. That's basically a layer cake." You're right. But we wanted to explain where that came from.

12:47 I don't think I've ever had Boston cream pie. I hadn't either. I was like, "Okay, we got to do Boston cream pie." And then I was like, "Oh, this is a little more interesting than I thought." Because it turns out Boston cream pie is a cake. It's not a pie in any sense whatsoever. The reason it's called Boston cream pie is because it's based on another recipe called Washington Pie.

13:07 And Washington pie was the same thing. It was a Boston cream pie cake baked in a pie crust. So a cake and a pie crust. And then eventually the Boston cream pie came along. They did away with the crust, but they kept the name pie, which is why Boston cream pie is called pie even though it's a cake.

13:24 That's right. And uh notably, it was invented for the opening, the grand opening of the Parker House Hotel in 1856,

13:31 which is got to be where Parker House rolls come from, right? I don't know. I've never heard of them before, but let's say Yeah.

13:37 You've never heard of Parker House Rolls? I've heard of Cider House Rules, but Parker House rolls are one of the best things in the world. You know them if you've seen them.

13:51 Okay. Uh and like a lot of it's become trendy in recent years at like a a nice restaurant will serve you Parker House rolls in like a little four baked in a fourack for the table.

14:02 It sounds like Kings Hawaiian kind of. Well, they kind of are. They kind of look like that. Kings Hawaiian, I think, is a the Hawaiian sweet version of a Parker House roll. They're just

14:11 I probably had those then. Yeah. Yeah. Big, beautiful, flaky, like buttery with a little sea salt on top. Man, it's the best thing ever.

14:18 Very nice. Yeah. Uh, I've actually stayed in the Parker House. It's now Omni Hotel.

14:24 And they didn't throw a roll at your face when you walked in. Not that I saw. No.

14:29 Actually, one of the the only times I was ever worried about getting Legion's disease was when I stayed there.

14:35 Uh, and then let's move on to key lime pie because this is the pride of Florida. If you've never had a slice of key lime pie, you're you're you're cheating yourself essentially. Just get your hands on one.

14:46 It's It's one of my It's top two pies for me. Agreed. Along with a crumbly apple, probably.

14:54 I like that, too. The Dutch apple crumble style, that one. Yeah, pecan pie. Yeah, those are my top three. Pecan pie, Dutch apple, and uh and key lime.

15:03 Okay. So key lime, one of the great things about it is I mean I don't want to say like if you walk into a 7-Eleven and buy a slice of key lime pie there, it's going to be as good as one that you get in the Florida Keys.

15:14 Mhm. But it's they're so similar to one another and there's a specific way to make it that it's not that far off. You're still kind of treating yourself. So go out and get some key lime pie. You don't have to be a purist. But if you are a purist and you want to know where it comes from, supposedly the local lore is that a woman only known as Aunt Sally,

15:32 okay, made them in the late 19th century down in Key West, uh, at the Curry House, which was the the estate of Florida's first millionaire, William Curry. So, you know, he was important and a really good guy. But she came up with this as a a recipe that she adapted from local Key West fishermen that they had come up with it themselves.

15:53 Yeah. Uh that's one story. Another is that uh they came uh later than that. Um and I think they were supposedly adapted from uh a recipe from New York for magic lemon cream pies uh that the Bordon Condensed Milk Company put out in the 1930s. But some people say no, it was actually the opposite. Uh they got that magic lemon cream pie from the key lime pie

16:16 and kind of stole it. Even though uh hats off to your board and condensed milk, that stuff is the best.

16:22 Yeah. Again, I want to shout out the ube condensed milk. It's not bored and I don't remember who makes it, but oh my god, it's seriously, you'll never taste anything that has a better taste than that.

16:33 I'm going to move on to that for my uh my family, my grandmother made, she called it lemon ice box pie.

16:39 Oh, yeah. Those are great. Yeah, it's sort of the same thing as a uh key lime pie, but just with with lemon uh in that it doesn't have uh meringue. Like why would you want to ruin a lemon pie by putting meringue on it?

16:52 I don't know. I I can go either way with that. Yeah, not my I'd rather replace it with ready whip though.

16:58 Oh well, now you're talking. Okay. Um everybody, I think it's pretty obvious that we are going to immediately go start eating pie after recording this. We hope you go enjoy some pie, too. And uh short stuff is out.

17:14 Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Short Stuff: Pies | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW"?

Josh Clark (Host), Charles "Chuck" Bryant (Host).

What is "Short Stuff: Pies | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW" about?

The discussion explores the history and evolution of pies, tracing their origins back to ancient Egypt over 8,000 years ago, where early versions included grains and honey. It highlights the Greeks' contributions to pie-making, such as the use of pastry dough, and contrasts the savory meat pies they favored with the potential sweetness of desserts that emerged later.

What is mentioned in this Stuff You Should Know episode?

65 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including apple pie, key lime pie, pumpkin pie, meat pie, pumpkins, cherry pie. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Short Stuff: Pies | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW"?

The episode runs 18 min; the transcript is about 3,466 words in 85 timestamped sections.

More from Stuff You Should Know

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated December 14, 2025.