Pecan pie is a sweet pie

Pie

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....

 made primarily of corn syrup

Corn syrup

Corn syrup is a food syrup, which is made from the starch of maize and contains varying amounts of maltose and higher oligosaccharides, depending on the grade. Corn syrup is used in foods to soften texture, add volume, prevent crystallization of sugar, and enhance flavor...

 and pecan

Pecan

The pecan , Carya illinoinensis, is a species of hickory, native to south-central North America, in Mexico from Coahuila south to Jalisco and Veracruz, in the United States from southern Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana east to western Kentucky, southwestern Ohio, North Carolina, South...

 nuts. It is popularly served at holiday meals and is also considered a specialty of Southern U.S. cuisine. Most pecan pie recipes include salt and vanilla as flavorings. Chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 and bourbon whiskey

Bourbon whiskey

Bourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...

 are other popular additions to the recipe. Pecan pie is often served with whipped cream

Whipped cream

Whipped cream is cream that has been beaten by a mixer, whisk, or fork until it is light and fluffy. Whipped cream is often sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla, in which case it may be called Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly ....

.

Origin

Tradition holds that the French invented pecan pie soon after settling in New Orleans, after being introduced to the nut by Native Americans

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

. Attempts to trace the dish's origin, however, have not found any recipes dated earlier than 1897, and well-known cookbooks such as Fannie Farmer

Fannie Farmer

Fannie Merritt Farmer was an American culinary expert whose Boston Cooking-School Cook Book became a widely used culinary text.-Biography:...

and The Joy of Cooking

The Joy of Cooking

Joy of Cooking, often known as "The Joy of Cooking" is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks, and has been in print continuously since 1936 and with more than 18 million copies sold. It was privately published in 1931 by Irma S. Rombauer, a homemaker in St. Louis, Missouri, who was...

did not include it before 1940.

The makers of Karo syrup popularized the dish and many of its recipes. Karo Syrup's own website contends that the dish was a 1930s "discovery" of a "new use for corn syrup" by a corporate sales executive's wife.

Cultural context

Pecan pie is often mentioned in American literature (and television) as associated with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other special occasions; for example:

Tonight was the monthly meeting and potluck dinner of the Lost River Community Association... Frances had brought two covered dishes, one a green-bean casserole, the other a macaroni and cheese, and several desserts. Mildred, who had prepared fried chicken and a pork roast, heard the phone ringing, but ignored it... After another trip to the car for two cakes and three pecan pies, the phone was still ringing.

—Fannie Flagg, 2004

Dooley handed them a basket stuffed with fruit, nuts, candy, a tinned ham, and a pecan pie. "Merry Christmas!" he said.

—Jan Karon, 1996