@eirene_belle: “as American as apple pie” Maybe you will be disappointed but apple pie as we know it first originated in England, where it developed from culinary influences from France and the Netherlands. In fact, apple trees weren’t even native to North America until the Europeans arrived. Only crab apples grew on the continent; shrunken and sour, they were barely used for eating, let alone for pastry. An easy, affordable, and adaptable dish, apple pie went on to become a staple in American cuisine throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. However, it didn’t become part of the cultural lexicon until around the 20th century, when such influential factors as advertising, news, and war created a new, misleading narrative that transformed the dish into a nationalist symbol.