History The pie has been around since the ancient Egyptians from 2000 B.C. At some point between 1400 B.C. (Greek settlements) and 600 B.C. (the decline of Egypt) the pie is believed to have passed on to the Greeks by the Egyptians. From Greece the pie spread to Rome, somewhere around 100 B.C. by which time pies had already been around for some 1000 years. The first known pie recipe came from the Romans and was for a rye-crusted goat cheese and honey pie. Pies appeared in England in the 12th century and were predominantly meat pies. The crust of the pie was referred to as the “coffyn” and there was generally more crust than filling. Sometimes these pies were made with fowl and the legs were left outside the pie to act as handles. For a long time the pastry crust was actually not eaten, serving only to preserve the moisture and flavour of the filling. A French chef named Guillaume Tirel produced a cookery book in the 14th Century that included a recipe for marinated and sautéed eel which was used for the Christian Lent period when it was forbidden to eat meat. Pies went to America with the first English settlers. As in Roman times the early American pie crusts were not eaten, but simply designed to hold the filling. Today, virtually every country in the world has some form of pie.